Give land to those who really want it
Elsewhere in this issue we carry a story in which Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Joseph Made is quoted as saying his ministry is inundated with calls from people asking to be resettled.
Notable among the thousands of applicants are Zimbabweans working in the Diaspora.
They include, as Dr Made put it, Zimbabweans working in the United States and the United Kingdom.
It is now a well-known fact that the UK and the US have tried to rubbish Zimbabwe’s historic land reform programme and shift the people’s attention to trivial issues.
Under the land reform programme, at least 350 000 families who until about three years ago had no land, are now proud owners of productive land.
While those farmers did not produce as envisaged due to a number of factors including drought, a significant number of them are now millionaires and are smiling all the way to the bank.
There is money in tilling the land. The 4 500 white commercial farmers who until the launch of the land reform programme held numerous huge tracts of land would not have put up so much resistance if this were not true.
We salute those of our compatriots working abroad who have woken up to the fact that millions of dollars can be earned from the land.
We are particularly excited by the interest that they have shown in investing in the land because we know that they have the financial resources needed to farm successfully.
Farming, in our view, is big business, which calls for a lot of money.
Some of our newly resettled farmers went onto the land with very little money and this impacted negatively on the productivity.
Some straight-thinking members of the progressive international community have hailed the land reform programme in Zimbabwe as a step in the right direction.
Those who support the programme have observed that, if properly implemented and supported, it can alleviate poverty and ensure that finite resources such as the land itself are in the hands of the majority.
Others keen to see the land remaining in the hands of a few people of British kith and kin, have tried to lampoon the programme, blaming it for envisaged food shortages in the country between now and the end of the next crop-growing season.
Yet even the World Bank, though without specifically mentioning Zimbabwe, has concurred that land is a finite resource whose utilisation can have a significant impact on any country’s economy.
The Government has said all Zimbabweans regardless of their political inclinations are entitled to land. The Government has kept its promise on that.
Today, even some senior MDC officials, who only recently were working with the West to discredit the programme, are landholders.
The Meteorological Services Department has already predicted good rainfall this year. The need to ensure that land is given to those who really want it and are prepared to invest into it cannot be overestimated.
We therefore welcome reports that lazy landholders will be compelled to relinquish the land for the purposes of resettling others.
The Government has earmarked 152 more farms for acquisition with a view to resettling more people. It is important to ensure that people who have at least some interest in producing for the nation get land.
The enthusiasm that is reportedly being exhibited by foreign-based Zimbabweans shows the confidence that they still have in the Government to sincerely implement the programme.
This was not a vote-catching gimmick.
Mitayo Potosi
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