Zimbabwe dismisses land reform reversal claims

Anxious Jongwe Masuka has strongly dismissed reports suggesting that Zimbabwe's land reform programme is being reversed, describing such claims as "mischievous and misguided."

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday as Acting Leader of Government Business in the absence of the Minister of Lands and Rural Development, Dr Masuka said the Second Republic under Emmerson Mnangagwa was instead strengthening land tenure security for black farmers across the country.

Responding in Shona to questions on land reform, Dr Masuka said Government had taken what he termed "the unprecedented and revolutionary step" of issuing title deeds to 360,000 A1 farmers and 23,500 A2 farmers. He added that more than 70,000 Old Resettlement farmers would also receive permits, leases and offer letters in line with Sections 289, 293 and 295 of the Constitution.

The Minister further announced that 840 indigenous-owned farms that were gazetted during the height of the land reform exercise would be returned to their original owners. In addition, 67 farms protected under Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreements (BIPPAs), which were gazetted but remain unoccupied, will also be returned to investors.

On the issue of former white commercial farmers who remain on the land and are peacefully co-existing with resettled beneficiaries, Dr Masuka said 409 former farm owners would be allowed to purchase their farms or portions thereof.

He explained that Government had introduced a set-off mechanism to recognise improvements made on the farms, although compensation would not extend to the land itself.

"The land is being sold and their improvements regarded as investments," he said.

Dr Masuka also revealed that President Mnangagwa had directed the issuance of title deeds to 10,000 Matenganyika farmers, many of whom still hold leases dating back to the pre-independence era.

The Minister said land redistribution remained central to Zimbabwe's liberation history, noting that land dispossession under colonial rule had been one of the key grievances that drove the liberation struggle.

"Land was a core grievance against the heinous and minority settler oppressive regime," he said. "Now the people are with their land and the land with its people."

Dr Masuka concluded by insisting there was no reversal of the land reform programme under the current administration, saying any claims to the contrary were deliberately misleading. He added that the Hansard record of his parliamentary remarks was available for verification.