Zapu reacts to Maleme farm invasion

THE Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (ZAPU), as a revolutionary pro-people party notes with disgust the recent invasion of Maleme Farm in Matabeleland's Matobo district, which is owned by Mr. Cunningham by one Mr. Mashingaidze.

The farm which houses Shalom Campsite and Ebenezer Training Center has been a hive of entrepreneurial activities with many jobless youths and women directly benefiting through employment and agriculture training.

The whole province has also been benefiting from its extensive poultry farming project while the Christian community at large has come to regard Maleme farm as its home due to its cheap and conducive boarding facilities.

The move by   Mr. Mashingaidze and his ZANU PF party not only goes to show how anti-people they are but also shows how the  ZANU PF government has turned injustice into law.

What is more shocking to ZAPU is that this latest   invasion of the particular Farm  by one of  the ZANU PF  cronies,  confirms  our fears that at a time Zimbabweans are swimming in poverty, the clueless government is setting its eyes on  looting from the ordinary Zimbabwean.

At a time when most youths are roaming in the streets due to high unemployment, Maleme Farm as one of the few productive farms left in the country, has been safeguarding livelihoods by offering employment and agricultural training to the people of Matebeland, highly hit by de-industrialization.

We are disheartened that this move seems to have the evil blessings of the Zanu Presidency through utterances made by the Vice President Emerson Mnangagwa, that farm invasions of the few remaining white owned farms will continue unabated.

It is also reported that Mr. Cunningham was subsequently ordered not to move any properties from the farm as this would constitute theft.

This is clearly a fraudulent act of the highest order and as ZAPU we utterly condemn this heinous crime against Mr. Cunningham and the ordinary people of Matobo .

We dismiss the move as a clear violation of the people's constitutional right to agricultural land as stated in the Constitution of Zimbabwe; and a clear violation of the very principles and values of the liberation struggle.

As a people's party right from the liberation struggle, we compel the Zanu government to sober up and put  first the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe and the Matobo people in particular  whose livelihoods  are now in limbo  because of Mashingaidze's selfishness who apparently is politically connected.

ZAPU therefore demands that Mashingaidze and his cronies move away from Maleme Farm forthwith and urge the powers that be to ensure that the rule of law is respected and not abused by the elite.
ZAPU will always fight for the protection of every human in Zimbabwe regardless of color, tribe, sex or affiliation and call upon all fair minded people to support Cde Cunningham, the Matobo people and the beneficiaries of Maleme Farm.

INSERTED BY ZAPU INFORMATION, PUBLICITY AND MARKETING DEPARTMENT
 www.zapu.org.