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Farmers unions have welcomed the changes to the country’s land tenure system that were announced by the government on Tuesday.
Under the reformed system, beneficiaries of the land reform programme will now receive a bankable, registrable, and transferable document of tenure from the government.
The government said that these adjustments will unlock the full value of the land and boost the country’s overall economic performance.
In an interview with <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/land-tenure-overhaul-heralds-new-era-for-farmers/">The Herald</a>, the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) Secretary General said the new model will enable farmers to access capital from financial institutions. Said Zakariya:
<blockquote>
I think this settles a matter that has been long outstanding, the need for farmlands to be used as security for all agricultural borrowings or for borrowings related to farm development, including agricultural production.
So, over the last two decades, farmers were securing loans using properties outside the farmlands and that was not sustainable.
Number one, because of the size of the borrowings for instance, if you are using a house, that house would not secure a long-term asset.
So, before, the values were very low, because the assets outside the farms were also not carrying so much, you can imagine someone using their house in Budiriro to develop a commercial farm somewhere.
The transferability of land gives comfort to financiers, that if anyone, by any means, defaults on their loans, the bank now has a fallback, which means the debt can actually be financed by somebody else and the firm then transfers ownership to whoever may have financed the debt.
So, this is a game changer in terms of unlocking value on our land under the Land Reform Programme. And indeed other lands too. They had lost the value completely. They had zero value. Now, this restores value, the value of land.
</blockquote>
Zimbabwe Indigenous Women Farmers Association Trust (ZWIFAT) president Depinah Nkomo said the new land tenure system will allow farmers to develop infrastructure on their farms. She said:
<blockquote>
Now we will be very confident especially us women because we will be able to access financing and we will also be able to transfer ownership as stipulated.
Before this development, we were not even confident to build proper infrastructure on our land so the President has heard our cry and as women, we are very happy we can now start our projects confidently and freely because we will now have that security.
</blockquote>
Economist Prosper Chitambara, speaking to <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200033401/new-land-laws-biggest-heist">NewsDay</a>, said the changes to the land tenure system are important not only for the land itself but also for Zimbabwe’s broader economic development. He said:
<blockquote>
I think it is critical in terms of ensuring the productive utilisation of the land and also unlocking full value, private sector investment and finance from private financial institutions while allowing land to be transferable.
That is one of the things a lot of scholars and observers have been advocating. I think that is the way to go to unlock the full value of land in Zimbabwe.
</blockquote>
Bankers Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) president Lawrence Nyazema said that while the new land tenure system provides farmers with more secure and transferable land rights, banks will still need to see evidence of sound business plans and the ability to generate steady income streams. Said Nyazema:
<blockquote>
Land is not as collateral that a farmer can walk into a bank requesting a loan because he or she has land. A farmer must have a project that generates money.
It is very difficult for a farmer to just approach a bank and ask for money just because they have the land. If he or she fails to pay for the loan, the bank should be able remove them from the land.
It is prudent for the farmers to come up with project proposals that they can develop to make sure that they are able to access the funds and repay the loans.
</blockquote>
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Pindula News

Farmers' unions are happy about changes to land ownership. Now, farmers will get official documents for their land from the government. This will help them get loans to improve their farms. Women farmers are especially excited about building on their land. Economists think these changes are good for the economy too. Banks say farmers need to have good plans to get loans, not just land. Everyone agrees that these changes will make a big difference for farmers and the country's economy.

Farmers' Unions Hail Land Tenure Reforms As Game-Changer For Agricultural Sector

Zimbabwe’s ruling elite and the politically connected may be attempting to sell land acquired during the land reform programme at no cost, following the government’s announcement of a new model allowing beneficiaries to sell their land, according to a former cabinet minister.
The chaotic fast-track land reform programme began at the turn of the millennium when former independence fighters invaded approximately 4,000 farms owned by white farmers.
This led to the politically connected and their families seizing vast tracts of land, with some occupying multiple farms.
On Tuesday, the government announced that beneficiaries of the programme could sell or transfer their farms, but only to “indigenous Zimbabweans.”
In an interview with <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200033401/new-land-laws-biggest-heist">NewsDay</a>, self-exiled former Foreign Affairs Minister Walter Mzembi described the process as opaque, suggesting that those with political connections stand to profit. He said:
<blockquote>
It is the biggest heist by this class since independence driven by policy itself and done under very opaque processes with no constitutional provisions compliance, consent from the people (referendum), audits, compliance with one family one farm, maximum land sizes and just waking up bestowing title to a replacement black bourgeoisie whose criteria to land ownership only God knows and boom cash out.
It is a policy reversal of the land reform programme as originally envisaged.
There will be numerous, in fact, hundreds of ‘black fronted’ land ownership transactions by former occupiers and foreigners, as much as there is leased farming by the same today.
It is a free ride by our own elite, with no Bill to the elite beneficiaries (zero rate) and titling their unverified, unaudited, no-trespass acquisitions.
</blockquote>
Currently, some beneficiaries of the land reform programme are not producing anything on their farms; instead, they are leasing the land to landless farmers who were unable to benefit from the programme.
These beneficiaries are collecting rent from these farmers, despite having received the land at no cost from the government.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Zimbabwe's leaders might let people sell land they got for free. The land reform program took land from white farmers and gave it to politically connected people. Now, the government says these people can sell their land, but only to other Zimbabweans. Critics say this is unfair and benefits the elite. Some landowners are not even farming the land they got; they are renting it out. This new policy is a change from the original land reform program.

"Zimbabwe's New Farm Policy A Reversal Of Land Reform"

Journalist and government critic Hopewell Chin’ono described the Zimbabwean government’s new policy allowing Black Zimbabweans who received farmland for free to sell it as not just “foolish,” but also criminal.
In a post on X, Chin’ono argued that expropriated land should belong to the government. He asserted that anyone willing and able to farm should be permitted to use the land for a fee or purchase it directly from the government, rather than from beneficiaries of farm invasions. Below is Chin’ono’s statement in full:
<blockquote>
The Zimbabwean government announced a new cabinet policy yesterday that will allow Black Zimbabweans who received farmland for free to sell it to Black Zimbabweans who did not. Do you see how absurd this reads?
This is not only economically foolish but criminal too. One person receives something for free, sells it for a profit, and the one who didn’t get the land is expected to fund the original land grab. Crazy stuff!
Although Zimbabwe’s tyrant and dictator, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is well known internationally as a thoroughly corrupt man, and it is clear that he and his goons want to profit from this, it will not work.
First, only a fool or a gang member of the looting club would buy contested land. Any farmland obtained after 2000, during the ZANUPF land invasions, is still contested to this day. 
Title can only change hands when the former White farmers sign a deed of cession. A deed of cession is a legal document transferring property ownership from one party to another. It allows a lender (bank) to sell the property to recover an outstanding debt. 
Former white farmers will not sign this until they are fully compensated, as the Zimbabwean regime under Mnangagwa had committed to doing in 2018.
That land should belong to the government, and anyone willing and able to farm should be allowed to use it for a fee or to buy it from government and not from beneficiaries of farm invasions and fast track land transfers. When they no longer need it, they should return it to the government.
However, this government, composed of crooks who have already looted billions of YOUR money, seeks another big payout by crafting a law that allows them to sell the many farms they invaded, many which are idle.
As long as the properties on that land are not paid for, and the white farmers have not signed the deed of cession, anyone buying that land under a ZANUPF law is throwing money away. It will eventually be contested, as we have seen many times before.
A notable example is Uganda. Dictator Idi Amin ordered the seizure of all businesses owned by Asians, just as ZANUPF did with farmland. He handed them to his cronies. 
Ugandans were told they could buy those businesses from each other as Mnangagwa is attempting to do with the land, but it did not work in the long run because economics doesn’t work that way.
When the current Ugandan ruler, General Yoweri Museveni, came to power in 1986, his government had to track down those Asian owners or their descendants and pay them compensation because no serious investor wanted to touch those contested businesses except the crooks amongst themselves.
Uganda eventually compensated for properties seized from Asians during the Idi Amin era. After Amin was overthrown in 1979, the new government established the Departed Asians Property Custodial Board to manage the seized properties.
In 1992, General Museveni announced that the properties would be returned to their original owners or their descendants, with compensation paid for those that had been sold or destroyed.
The expulsion of Asians from Uganda was a traumatic event with lasting consequences for the country’s economy and society, much like ZANU PF’s land invasions that destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy. 
Nearly every business was linked to farming, and when farming collapsed, everything else followed.
The issue at the moment is not about selling and buying land, it is about the investment world having zero confidence in anything ZANUPF says due to a well established track record of lies and fake promises.
A 99-year lease would have been sufficient to make land tradeable, but this failed because Mnangagwa continued with land invasions. Nobody holding land today is safe unless they are part of the ZANUPF leadership.
As long as people can lose their farms due to party affiliation or political views, farmland will never be a worthwhile long-term investment for any serious business person, farming is a business. 
The land is owned by the government, which must pay compensation as promised and then allow any Zimbabwean to buy it from the government without political conditions.
Why should someone who invaded 21 farms and holds them in their custody be allowed to sell them when they paid nothing for them? How is this any different from colonialism?
This is criminal and should be REJECTED in its entirety by all sane Zimbabweans!
What Mnangagwa and his ZANUPF cabinet want will lead to serious political problems and upheavals that led to a war of independence, including the economic viability of such a move, the legal status of the land, and the moral implications of profiting from an unfair distribution of resources.
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA),the Zimbabwean dictator stated that he was compensating 94 former white farmers, providing them with US$20 million. 
What you need to know is that these farmers are linked only to Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA), and around 70% of them are Dutch.
A BIPPA, or Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, is an international agreement between two countries aimed at promoting and protecting foreign investment. 
The agreement includes provisions that protect investors from discriminatory treatment, expropriation of assets, and unfair restrictions on the repatriation of profits.
ZANUPF violated these agreements regardless of having signed them, a terrible track record of not honouring legal agreements.
We also have 650 Black farmers who lost their land to ZANUPF’s fast-track land invasions. They were told that they would get their farms back under Statutory Instrument 62 of 2020. 
However, they did not regain their farms. How can a sane person buy that land when it is contested and without a deed of cession? Remember, these are not even white farmers, they are Black farmers.
There are 4,500 title deeds in contention, yet Mnangagwa only mentioned 94 in his SONA address. Who will pay these thousands of former white farmers?
How can one establish such a policy without a comprehensive land audit that assesses how many invaded farms one owns, what they have produced, and the amount of taxes they have paid to the Zimbabwean fiscus?
Land policy will require a national strategy based on economic viability and a non-partisan approach. 
No one should benefit from selling land they did not purchase from the state or the former land owners. 
Additionally, agreements with the banking sector are crucial, as arrangements solely with ZANUPF hold little value to the rest of the world.
Lastly, is what ZANUPF wants to do based on Leasehold or Freehold title? Freehold and leasehold are two different types of property ownership, with distinct differences in terms of the rights and responsibilities of the owner.
With freehold ownership, the owner holds the title to the land and the buildings on it, the owner has full control over the property and is free to make any changes or improvements, subject to local planning regulations, the owner is responsible for maintaining the property and paying for any repairs or upkeep, the owner has the right to live in the property for as long as they choose and can sell it at any time.
With leasehold ownership, the owner has the right to occupy the property for a fixed period, typically 99.
The owner does not own the land, but instead has a lease agreement with the freeholder, who owns the land and in this case it would be government.
The lease agreement sets out the terms of the lease, including the amount of ground rent that must be paid to the freeholder each year, the owner may be required to obtain permission from the freeholder before making any changes to the property.
All these things are not addressed because in my view this is not done in good faith, but to steal and plunder billions of dollars from selling land if they do get clowns willing to put money down the drain.
How do you get free land, free mechanisation equipment, free inputs, free fuel and free equipment maintenance every year, yet you ask the taxpayer to pay the previous farmers while you get the right to sell on the land, it is mindless and uneconomic looting that only a person with a criminal mind can defend?
</blockquote>
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

The Zimbabwean government has a new policy that allows Black Zimbabweans who got farmland for free to sell it. A journalist named Hopewell Chin'ono thinks this is foolish and criminal. He says the land should belong to the government, not individuals. An example from Uganda shows that selling contested land leads to problems. He thinks the government wants to profit from this policy. He believes the land should be owned by the government, leased to farmers, and returned when not needed. Buying land based on this new policy is risky and will not work in the long run. It is not a good idea, and it should be rejected by everyone in Zimbabwe.

New Policy Permitting Land Reform Beneficiaries To Sell Farms Is "Foolish" And "Criminal" - Chin'ono

National spokesperson of the National Patriotic Front (<a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/National_Patriotic_Front_(NPF)">NPF</a>)<a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/Jealousy_Mawarire"> Jealousy Mawarire</a>, who was a close ally of the late former President Robert Mugabe, said that the government’s fast track land reform programme which was launched at the turn of the millennium was speared by the military to create what they called “liberated zones”.
Mawarire claimed that the ruling ZANU PF party considered losing the 2000 elections to the opposition MDC a distinct possibility and the war veterans and security service personnel who took over farms did so in preparation for such a possibility.
Mawarire said this in response to a Twitter user, Mbuya Gudo from Dotito, <a href="https://twitter.com/MamoyoT/status/1450114560128692225">who had said</a> the then president, Robert Mugabe launched the land reform programme in 2000 to punish white farmers for allegedly sponsoring the “No Vote” in the constitutional referendum. <a href="https://twitter.com/mawarirej/status/1450124744901238789">Said Mawarire: </a>
<blockquote>
You are correct mbuya. However, what hasn’t also been told is that the fast track land reform was a military operation to create “liberated zones” in commercial farm areas in preparation for a Zanu-PF defeat in the 2000 &amp; 2002 elections.
The war vets &amp; security service personnel who took over farms were supposed to keep them as “liberated zones” in preparation 4 a Zanu-PF come back in elections after 2002.
The people who took the farms were not farmers, but those with the ability to defend the land from an MDC govt takeover, that’s why most who got the A2 farms were either war vets or security services officials who were under instruction to KEEP the land whilst govt figured out what to do with it. They were under instruction not to build permanent structures.
So yes, there was the need to get back at white farmers who openly supported MDC but the primary reason was to take the farms &amp; create “liberated zones” in case Zim was going to have an MDC govt.
The farms were the last vestige of colonial occupation &amp; Mugabe felt he had to “free” them before the MDC took over govt.
The liberated zones (farms) were meant to be the base from which Zanu-PF would launch a come back in the event they lost the 2000 &amp; 2002 elections.
There was an understandable belief that the MDC had a huge war chest from the Westminster Foundation that Zanu-PF could not match &amp; the Constitutional Commission Yes-Vote defeat removed any doubt that Zanu-PF could lose the 2000 parliamentary &amp; 2002 presidential elections hence the need to liberate the farms &amp; finish off the liberation struggle b4 MDC took over govt.
</blockquote>
<h4>More: <a href="https://news.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a></h4>

Zimbabwe's Land Reform Was A Military Operation To Create 'Liberated Zones' - Mawarire

Update on December Judgment: Zimbabwean farmers Luke Tembani and 24 others v the President of the Republic of South Africa and others.
SADC Tribunal Rights Watch: Ben Freeth, Spokesperson and Advocate Willie Spies, legal adviser
14 January 2021
Last month the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria handed down judgment in a R2-billion damages claim against South Africa by 25 dispossessed Zimbabwean farmers, some of whom were South African citizens, arising from findings by the Constitutional Court in 2018.
The Constitutional Court had found there to have been a “conspiracy” related to a “stratagem” initiated by the Government of Zimbabwe to destroy, in bad faith, individual recourse to the regional human rights court, the SADC Tribunal, arising from Zimbabwe’s land seizure programme.
In its December judgment, the High Court first upheld the plaintiffs’ application for condonation (holding that their claims had not, as the President and SA Government had contended) prescribed, i.e. become irrecoverable due to the expiry of a three-year period.
The plaintiffs, it held, were quite entitled first to have declared invalid, as it was by the Constitutional Court, President Jacob Zuma’s assent to the suspension and then abolition of all right of access by individual SADC citizens to the Tribunal set up under the SADC Treaty.
The court went on to dismiss all but one of the defendants’ exceptions (legal defences intended to avert a trial) to the plaintiffs’ claims for compensation against South Africa for its participation in the conspiracy.
In respect of the single exception allowed – which the court erroneously presented in its judgment as two exceptions – the court upheld the SA Government’s contention that the claims must fail because it was not the claimants’ pleaded case that “only” President Zuma’s assent had caused the loss.
The claimants are seeking leave to appeal from the High Court against that ruling and they filed an application for leave to appeal this week (January 12). This points out that it was indeed not the claimants’ case that only President Zuma’s complicity caused their loss. Their case was that there was a conspiracy between Zimbabwe, South Africa and other SADC states acceding to what it called Zimbabwe’s “stratagem” and “masterplan”. The Constitutional Court has already found exactly that.
Nor (the plaintiffs contend in seeking to appeal the ruling) does it matter, as the High Court thought, that the SADC Treaty permits decisions by the Summit (the heads of state) to be taken by three-quarters of the leaders. The Summit has consistently applied consensus as the requirement – and did so here. The support by President Zuma for President Mugabe’s scheme was indeed, as a fact, needed for it to succeed.
The application also seeks leave to appeal against a second order: one that treated legal causation as a further basis for exception, when it was not (erroneously numbering it as a second ‘Exception 1’ in the order it made). 
The court elsewhere in its judgment dismissed the separate exception which had contended that President Zuma had owed no legal duty to SADC citizens, only to SA citizens.
Yet it proceeded, as part of the single exception it upheld, to find that essentially the same kind of losses caused by the same conduct of President Zuma were irrecoverable, as a matter of ‘legal causation’ where they were suffered by SADC citizens who happened not to hold South African citizenship.
Speaking for the plaintiffs today, their attorney, Willie Spies said:
<blockquote>The plaintiffs seek leave to appeal because they believe that the Constitutional Court clearly held President Zuma to have plotted with President Mugabe, and some other SADC leaders, to destroy individual access to the region’s only international law and human rights Tribunal.
We believe there are reasonable prospects that the Supreme Court of Appeal will disagree with what the High Court has held on causation: its judgment, also on causation, delivered in relation to Covid-19 insurance in the same week supports that belief. And it is of great importance to all citizens of SADC to establish whether it is correct that, while President Zuma owed them a legal duty, when he breached that duty their devastating losses are as yet not recoverable.</blockquote>

Update: Judgment On Zimbabwean Farmers v South Africa

Former Finance Minister (GNU era), Tendai Biti has claimed that white commercial farmers are quietly returning back to their farms where they are renting the land from “non-productive African beneficiaries who have failed to utilise it.”
Zimbabwe embarked on the chaotic land reform program two decades ago and many white farmers lost their farms, yet, the bulky of those who took over the farms are failing to use the land to full capacity.
This has resulted in the country failing to produce enough grain for consumption let alone export.
<ol>
<li><a href="https://zero.pindula.co.zw/watch-what-did-white-farmers-expect-black-politicians-to-do-tiktikor-on-land-reform/">WATCH: “What Did White Farmers Expect Black Politicians To Do” – TikToker On Land Reform</a></li>
<li><a href="https://zero.pindula.co.zw/update-judgment-on-zimbabwean-farmers-v-south-africa/">Update: Judgment On Zimbabwean Farmers v South Africa</a></li>
<li><a href="https://zero.pindula.co.zw/govt-says-it-will-use-mining-profits-to-compensate-white-former-farmers/">Govt Says It Will Use Mining Profits To Compensate White Former Farmers</a></li>
<li><a href="https://zero.pindula.co.zw/war-vets-sue-ed-over-3-5-billion-white-farmers-compensation-deal/">War Vets Sue ED Over $3.5 Billion White Farmers Compensation Deal</a></li>
<li><a href="https://zero.pindula.co.zw/full-text-communique-on-us3-5bn-compensation-agreement-between-zimbabwe-and-dispossessed-farmers/">FULL TEXT: Communique On US$3.5Bn Compensation Agreement Between Zimbabwe And Dispossessed Farmers</a></li>
</ol>
Biti said a brief study on the land reform programme showed some evicted white farmers were returning back to their former farms under individual lease agreements with the new African farm beneficiaries. He said:
<blockquote>A cursory study of the land reform process shows massive and existence of leases of acquired land to former white farmers.
Mashonaland West and the Midlands provinces have the highest number of white lessees. That being the case, the land reform is now a joke. The creation of black land-owning rentier class whose sole function is to extract rent from land is a negation of land reform programme.
It is a true reflection of how lost and how vacuous Zanu PF under (President) Emmerson (Mnangagwa) has become. This parasitic class of landlords must be expunged.</blockquote>
Biti went on to call for an urgent land audit to flush out unproductive farmers while also demanding that landowners should be issued offer letters.
He added that it was imperative that the beneficiaries of the land reform pay and fund the US$ 3.5 billion in compensation to whites.
Biti speaks as the government has resolved to pay US$3.5 billion to former white farm owners as compensation for improvements made on the farms.
The move has infuriated various stakeholders who believe the compensation will adversely affect the broke Southern African country’s efforts to revive the collapsed economy.
More: <a href="https://news.pindula.co.zw">Pindula News;</a> <a href="https://www.newzimbabwe.com/more-evicted-white-farmers-lease-farms-as-beneficiaries-give-up-biti/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NewZimbabwe</a>

White Farmers Quietly Returning To Their Farms - Biti

War veterans have said farmworkers who lost their jobs when the government seized farms owned by white farmers during the fast track land reform have to be compensated.
This comes when the <a href="https://news.pindula.co.zw/2020/07/29/breaking-zimbabwes-finance-minister-officially-signs-a-us35-billion-compensation-agreement-with-dispossessed-white-farmers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">government has agreed to raise US$3.5 billion to compensate the farmers</a> whose farms were taken for redistribution to landless blacks.
It is estimated that about 320 000 workers, approximately 25% of the country’s workforce then, lost their jobs during the farm invasions at the turn of the millennium.
Former Zipra veteran Maxwell Vuma Mkandla said the former farm workers also deserved to be compensated. He said:
<blockquote>When the land invasion started, most of them lost their property and their jobs and since then, some of them have not even recovered from the effects of the process because some had no rural homes and they lived in farm compounds.</blockquote>
Human rights defender Effie Ncube told NewsDay that the former farmworkers were not considered for compensation because the Zanu PF government “does not care about workers.”
The government’s decision to compensate white farmers sparked controversy in the country. Some say it is the only possible way to address the sensitive issue while some are saying the move is a reversal of the gains of the liberation struggles.
Authorities, however, say compensation is for improvements which farmers made at the farms, not for the land itself.
More: <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/09/ex-farm-workers-deserve-compensation-war-vets/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">NewsDay</a>

War Vets Say Ex-Farm Workers Have To Be Compensated

Zambia’s Agriculture sector might be the country’s only economic sector to grow in 2020 after maize production expanded by about 70% after good rains followed a historic drought in the previous season.
Ironically, neighbouring Zimbabwe is facing starvation after a poor farming season that was affected by the El Nino induced drought and about two decades of poor agriculture policies.
Zambia’s Agriculture Minister Michael Katambo told reporters this Wednesday in Lusaka that maize production is estimated to have risen to 3.4 million metric tons in the 2019-2020 season from 2 million tons the previous one.
This means the southern African nation is food secure, for now, when Zimbabwe is importing grain to avert starvation.
Some of the farmers in Zambia were chased away from Zimbabwe at the turn of the millennium when the Robert Mugabe-led government embarked on a gruesome fast-track land reform programme.
Although Zambia is expecting a maize surplus of 210 099 tons, the country’s economy is however struggling due to a number of factors including a looming <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-18/zambia-sees-to-restructure-debt-after-over-ambition-on-loans" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" title="Zambia Seeks Restructuring After ‘Over-Ambition’ on Debt (2)">debt crisis</a> and the impact of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The International Monetary Fund projects that the Gross domestic product will shrink by 3.5% this year.
More: <a href="https://healthtimes.co.zw/2020/05/27/breaking-zambias-health-minister-tests-positive-for-covid-19/">Bloomberg</a>

Zambia’s Maize Production Expanded By About 70% This Year

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Norton legislator, Temba Mliswa, has said that although Zimbabwe’s Land Reform Programme was a noble idea, there are fewer dividends to pick from the initiative that saw the state dispossessing white farmers of their land two decades ago.
He speaks when the country is facing starvation due to the El Nino induced drought and poor agricultural policies over the years. Posting on Twitter this Monday, Mliswa said:
<blockquote>
There are no 2 ways about it, land reform was a noble initiative. It was brought about to economically emancipate the people of Zim&amp;balance land distribution. The founding principles of the struggle were sound&amp;people based, wealth to the people, one man, one vote for the majority
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If you take the time to review &amp; reflect the success and/or failure of the land reform as I have recently, you will realise, yes it’s a success in that the majority now owns the land. Has it however been a success economically, no it hasn’t.
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He said the success of current “less-privileged” farmers, as well as that of local companies, was dependent upon availability of incentives from the government.
Mliswa also recommended the downsizing of farms owned by less productive individuals to allow mass production.
More: <a href="https://twitter.com/TembaMliswa/status/1262308675240296449">Temba Mliswa</a>
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"Has The Land Reform Been A Success Economically?" -Mliswa Interrogates The Matter

Former Vice President of the Commercial Farmers Union of ZimbabweZimbabwe, Trevor Gifford has said that Zimbabwe needs to close the land reform chapter and focus on developing the agriculture sector.
Speaking during a Zanu PF’s Third Business Breakfast Meeting held in Mutare on Thursday, Gifford, a white former commercial farmer, said:
<blockquote>It’s now 20 years after the land reform. Let’s close the chapter and give an opportunity to those who can fully utilise the land.
I am a citizen of Zimbabwe who also wants the same opportunity so that I can be an active participant in the nation and economic rebuilding.</blockquote>
Gifford was evicted from his farm in Chipinge in 2006 at the height of government’s fast track land reform program.
He observed that the country has “vast tracts of fertile land lying idle” which should be given to those “who can fully utilise” it “for the benefit of the nation.”
Zimbabwe which was at some point the breadbasket of Africa has for the past two decades been a basket case as it fails to produce enough even for local consumption with authorities blaming climate shift and sanctions.
More: <a href="https://www.newzimbabwe.com/ex-farmer-urges-close-to-land-reform-chapter-to-allow-economic-recovery/">New Zimbabwe</a>

"Let’s Close The Land Reform Chapter," Ex-White Farmer Tells ZANU PF

<a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/Hopewell_Chin%27ono">Hopewell Chin’ono</a>, a Zimbabwean journalist and documentary filmmaker has reported that two white farmers Gary and Joe Hensman of Gypslander were on Wednesday evicted from their farm which is located in Chinhoyi. Read the full thread below.
<blockquote>Today (Wednesday) farmers Gary &amp; Jo Hensman of Gypslander Farm in Chinhoyi were forcibly kicked out of their farm after they lost a battle to keep their property. NO investment is coming into Zimbabwe not bcoz of sanctions, but bcoz of contested Property Rights. Hensman argues it’s his land
The man at the center of the eviction, <a data-user-name="mosesmpofu1" href="https://twitter.com/mosesmpofu1/" rel="noopener user noreferrer" target="_blank">@mosesmpofu1</a> has an offer letter issued in October of 2017 by the Government of Zimbabwe. He said he is one of many who have been waiting for land to farm &amp; argues that he has gotten the land within the prescriptions of the Land Reform law.</blockquote>
Below is the 2017 offer letter which was issued to Moses Mpofu who evicted the farmers.
More: Hopewell Chin’ono

FULL THREAD: White Farmers Forcibly Evicted In Chinhoyi

British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Melanie Robinson is this Wednesday paying a courtesy call on President Emmerson Mnangagwa at his Munhumutapa Offices in Harare.
Also present are envoys, Harriet Matthews, the Director for Africa in the Foreign and Commonwealth office and Debbie Palmer, the Director for West and Southern Africa in the UK Department for International Development. The envoys are currently in a closed-door meeting.
The meeting is held when Zimbabwe is trying to mend relations with the international community, particularly the West whose relations with Zimbabwe turned sour two decades ago over alleged human rights violations committed during the fast track land reform programme.
More: <a href="https://www.zbc.co.zw/just-in-british-ambassador-paying-courtesy-call-on-president-mnangagwa/">ZBC News</a>

British Ambassador To Zimbabwe Paying Courtesy Call On President Mnangagwa

While making a contribution during a discuss on the African National Congress’ adopted policy to expropriate land without compensation in Illovo on Tuesday, Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe said the South African Government will not expropriate land the way Zimbabwe did.
Mantashe said Zimbabwe rushed into land expropriation without compensation and this harmed the country’s food security and economy. Mantashe added that land redistribution without compensation scares white land owners. Said Mantashe:
<blockquote>Later on they attached extension officers to a group of small farmers of the five-hectare households, much later. That was trying to transform what was the land redistribution, almost described as land grabs into a productive programme. We should understand the fears of those who sit on the land when we speak of land expropriation without compensation. It is not a policy to drive whites to the sea.</blockquote>
More: <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2018/03/27/mantashe-zimbabwe-s-land-expropriation-was-done-wrongly">EWN</a>

"Zimbabwe's Land Reform Was Done Wrongly": Mantashe

President Robert Mugabe has declared that all locals who are alleged to have killed former white farmers during the land reform program in 2000 are immune to prosecution because the farmers were resisting a government program. He also urged newly resettled farmers not to work with the former white farmers or to lease them part of their farms.
Speaking at the Heroes Day commemorations at the national shrine yesterday, Mugabe said:
<blockquote>Yes, we have those who were killed when they resisted. We will never prosecute those who killed them. I ask: Why we should arrest them?
Some (white farmers) are coming back under the guise of coming to collect their tractors or asking to work with the new farmers. Some of us are accepting. They (new farmers) are being persuaded like ladies being courted by men without even considering who they are dealing with.</blockquote>
 
More: <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/2017/08/15/no-prosecutions-white-farmers-killers/">NewsDay</a>

We will never prosecute those who killed white farmers during land reform: President Mugabe

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