‘Thousands still seeking land for resettlement’
Herald Reporter
THOUSANDS of land-hungry Zimbabweans are still thronging the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement in search of land for resettlement.
Three years after the launch of the agrarian reform programme, the ministry remains inundated with people applying for resettlement, among them, Zimbabweans who are foreign based.
There are also locally-based people who had played a wait-and-see game at the inception of the programme but now see that the agrarian reform is not reversible.
In an interview, the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Cde Joseph Made, confirmed that thousands of people continue to either visit his office or phone, requesting to be resettled.
"We are inundated by our people in the United Kingdom, across Europe, the United States and all over the world, who want to come back home with their foreign currency and reclaim the land that is their birthright.
"We have said to them, we will not deprive any Zimbabwean of the land that is his birthright because there is land that is lying idle which we are reclaiming,’’ said Cde Made.
He added: "Like we have always maintained, every Zimbabwean is entitled to land and we welcome those who are applying for land."
The applications come in the wake President Robert Mugabe demanding that those who took more than one farm should surrender the rest and remain with only one, within two weeks.
It also comes in the wake of the Government gazetting another 152 farms for resettle- ment, thereby opening up more land for resettlement.
So far, more than 351 000 families were resettled under Model A1 while another 50 000 were resettled under Model A2.
The Government has continued to focus on the land reform programme, despite a barrage of criticism from its detractors.
Mitayo Potosi
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