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Ex-ZIPRA War Veteran Slams Land Reversals and Compensation to White Farmers
24 Jul 2025 at 16:27hrs | Views
An outspoken ex-ZIPRA war veteran, Max Mkandla, has expressed outrage over two main reasons why Zimbabweans went to war against the colonial regime of Ian Douglas Smith, highlighting alarming developments where black Zimbabweans are now losing land back to former white owners. At the same time, the government is compensating those former white farmers for land lost during the land reform programme.
Mkandla's remarks come at a time when the High Court has barred Lands Minister Anxious Masuka from evicting war veterans from Springs Farm to pave the way for businessman Billy Rautenbach. The court ruled that the move was "irrational and insensitive."
Despite years of farming and working in partnership with the government, the war veterans nearly lost their land to what Mkandla termed "elite greed" - until Justice Regis Dembure dismissed the minister's case, comparing it to "expired milk."
Mkandla criticized the government, accusing it of betraying the liberation struggle by siding with white former landowners at the expense of black beneficiaries.
"The major reason we went to war was land. Looking at what is happening - where blacks are losing land back to whites - we ask ourselves: why did we waste our time and lives going to war for land, only to have it taken from us again? This is nonsense. We wasted our time fighting for this land. Some of us left school to join the liberation war for this to happen!" Mkandla said.
He added that since the formation of the opposition MDC in 1999, ZANU-PF had consistently campaigned on the narrative that if the late MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, were allowed to rule, he would reverse the land reform programme and take land away from black Zimbabweans.
"That same campaign propaganda continued during Nelson Chamisa's time as a strong opposition leader. But the sad reality is that the very government that warned about land reform reversals is now the one reversing it — and even paying compensation to whites for land they took by force from the black majority," Mkandla said.
He warned that the current developments regarding land are retrogressive and have the potential to stir unrest and disharmony in the country.
Mkandla's remarks come at a time when the High Court has barred Lands Minister Anxious Masuka from evicting war veterans from Springs Farm to pave the way for businessman Billy Rautenbach. The court ruled that the move was "irrational and insensitive."
Despite years of farming and working in partnership with the government, the war veterans nearly lost their land to what Mkandla termed "elite greed" - until Justice Regis Dembure dismissed the minister's case, comparing it to "expired milk."
Mkandla criticized the government, accusing it of betraying the liberation struggle by siding with white former landowners at the expense of black beneficiaries.
"The major reason we went to war was land. Looking at what is happening - where blacks are losing land back to whites - we ask ourselves: why did we waste our time and lives going to war for land, only to have it taken from us again? This is nonsense. We wasted our time fighting for this land. Some of us left school to join the liberation war for this to happen!" Mkandla said.
He added that since the formation of the opposition MDC in 1999, ZANU-PF had consistently campaigned on the narrative that if the late MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, were allowed to rule, he would reverse the land reform programme and take land away from black Zimbabweans.
"That same campaign propaganda continued during Nelson Chamisa's time as a strong opposition leader. But the sad reality is that the very government that warned about land reform reversals is now the one reversing it — and even paying compensation to whites for land they took by force from the black majority," Mkandla said.
He warned that the current developments regarding land are retrogressive and have the potential to stir unrest and disharmony in the country.
Source - Byo24News
