Maravi

(HERALD) Land reform is colour blind

Land reform is colour blind

THE granting of offer letters to 13 white farmers in Guruve district of Mashonaland Central Province is a very significant development, particularly as it exposes claims by certain sections of the rightwing world and their media, who said white farmers were being hounded off the land.

As we reported in yesterday’s issue, the 13 farmers were part of the 210 resettled farmers who were yet to receive offer letters in Guruve district and hence were finding it difficult to move onto the land allocated to them.

The farmers received the offer letters, which pave the way for the granting of 99-year leases, after complying with the terms of the land reform programme.

This development should be a wake-up call to all those white farmers who have opted for the confrontation route, a route that is contrary to the law of the land, and hence can only bring misery.

There is more to be gained from abiding by the law and nothing to gain from intransigence. The land reform programme is for all landless Zimbabweans interested in agriculture regardless of colour or creed.

The Government is on record as insisting that the land reform programme is not racist, but is geared for equity. White former farmers, holding Zimbabwean citizenship, interested in resettlement have been urged to apply for land just like everybody else.

It was unavoidable that farms were to be taken from white farmers for redistribution to the landless black majority since the land reform programme sought to correct racist colonial land imbalances.

Colonial land policies had vested over 70 percent of the country’s most arable land in the hands of no more than 5 000 white farmers whereas millions of black families were crammed on the remaining 30 percent. This 30 percent was found mostly in agro-ecological regions 4 and 5 that are not suitable for arable farming.

The centrality of land reforms to our very existence is why our three main political parties have endorsed the irreversibility of the programme.

The recalcitrant farmers must remember that land reforms in Zimbabwe do not fit the stereotype of Western packaging that pass them off as occupations, they are a legal fait accompli supported by legislative and institutional provisions guaranteeing the resettled security of tenure for a century or more.

Many of the resettled farmers have since signed 99-year lease agreements that are legally binding on any and all successive governments.

To put it simply, even if the MDC formations were to form the next government without Zanu-PF, they would still be bound by the agreements entered into between the resettled farmers and the incumbent Government.

That is the law of succession that was sadly violated by the British in 1997, but which no sane Zimbabwean would ever disregard without inviting the wrath of the citizens.

The remaining farmers should move off gazetted farms, apply for land like everybody else, and wait for resettlement in terms of the law.

Labels: LAND REFORM

posted by MrK @ 11:49 PM