Grace Mugabe is plain greedy

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's family has emerged as one of the biggest land owners in the aftermath of the controversial land reform programme, which he championed ostensibly to correct skewed ownership patterns.

The necessity of the land reforms has never been in doubt as only a sizeable number of white commercial farmers owned the majority of the most productive farms at the expense of the black majority.

Mugabe's chaotic reforms came at a great cost to the economy as they were patently racist and vindictive. The reforms resulted in the international isolation of Zimbabwe for over a decade.

Zimbabweans paid and still pay a great price for that madness. The fact that only one family seems to be getting all the spoils is stretching things too far.

The Mugabe family grabbed a dairy farm and they have established a multi-million dairy enterprise out of the sweat of an unfortunate family of white Zimbabweans who might never get any compensation in their lifetime.

As if that was not enough, the First Lady Grace went on a land grabbing spree in the Mazowe area where various enterprises such as Interfresh were left reeling from the wanton violation of property rights.

Grace has also reportedly targeted ordinary people who took advantage of the land reforms to settle at Manzou Farm in Mazowe.

On Wednesday armed police forcibly evicted more than 200 families after demolishing their homes, allegedly to pave way for the First Lady's planned private wildlife sanctuary project.

Some of the affected villagers, who left behind thriving maize crops, said about six truckloads of armed police officers stormed the area in the morning and demolished their pole and dagga houses.

Last year police destroyed homes and evicted over 700 villagers from the same farm, allegedly at the instigation of the First Lady.

The villagers were later dumped in Rushinga, Lazy and Blagdon farms in Concession before they took legal action and won a High Court reprieve to stay at the property until they had been allocated an alternative piece of land to settle on.

Grace's latest antics are a slap in the face for her handlers who want to brand her as caring and a fresh breadth of air in local politics.

She is plain greedy and is out to feather her nest as her husband exits the scene. Her wealth accumulation has reached obscene levels.