THE Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial leadership has reassured
white commercial farmer Ms Hellen Mitchell – the province’s biggest day-old
chick producer – that her multi-million-dollar hatchery project at Barquest
Farm would not be acquired for resettlement.
Government, at the behest of the provincial party
leadership, has since issued Ms Mitchell an offer letter giving her security of
tenure at the farm, which houses a hatchery that produces 100 000 day-old
chicks, weekly.
Barquest is located on the shores of Lake Mutirikwi, about
20km east of Masvingo city and has been subject to several take-over bids under
the land redistribution exercise.
Former Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Walter Mzembi had
targeted the farm, but was blocked by the late Masvingo Provincial Affairs
Minister and national heroine Senator Shuvai Mahofa. There were reports of
fresh attempts to take over the farm, but Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial chairman
Cde Ezra Chadzamira said the farm would be spared.
He said the ruling party leadership and the Masvingo
Provincial Lands Committee had unanimously resolved that Barquest Farm should
remain in Ms Mitchell’s hands.
“The decision for her to remain at Barquest will not change
and the Zanu-PF leadership in the province and the provincial lands committee
recommended that Ms Mitchell be issued with an offer letter and she now has it,
so she will remain on that farm,” he said.
“Barquest Farm is of strategic economic importance to
Masvingo Province because of the hatchery business that produces day-old
chicks, which benefit our people. So we made a resolution that Ms Mitchell
should remain on that farm, continuing with her operations.”
Cde Chadzamira said the provincial party leadership would
not tolerate takeover of white-owned commercial farms that were of strategic
economic importance.
Besides housing a state-of-the-art hatchery, Barquest is
also a source of eggs that are supplied to most parts of the province. The
day-old chicks produced at Barquest serve the Masvingo and Manicaland
provinces.
In 2015, Dr Mzembi, then Tourism and Hospitality Industry
Minister, was issued an offer letter to take over about 370 hectares at
Barquest that had been gazetted for acquisition by Government under the land
reform programme.
He claimed then that he wanted to partner Ms Mitchell in
her hatchery venture, but the late Sen Mahofa led a spirited campaign that
eventually stopped Dr Mzembi from moving onto the property.
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