DOUGLAS Mwonzora’s MDC-T MPs are demanding that the Zanu PF government should allocate them farms, accusing the ruling party of partisan land redistribution that excluded them.
The demand was made to Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka
when he appeared before the Gokwe-Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena-chaired
Parliament Portfolio Committee on Agriculture on Thursday.
MDC-T MPs took the minister to task over the distribution
of land to ruling party members, leaving out members of the opposition. Masuka
was giving oral evidence on how the government intends to reshape agricultural
activities in the country.
MDC-T MP Joyce Makonya asked Masuka to clarify reports that
resettled farmers were being ejected from their land to pave way for former
white commercial farmers. Other MDC-T MPs interjected her, shouting: “Yes! We
also want those farms.”
Their demand for farms came two days after the MDC-T,
including Mwonzora and his deputies Elias Mudzuri and Thokozani Khupe, colluded
with Zanu PF to vote for a constitutional amendment that gives President Emmerson
Mnangagwa powers to appoint judges without subjecting them to public interviews
as demanded by the Constitution adopted in 2013.
Mwonzora has been accused of working with Zanu PF to
decimate the MDC Alliance led by Nelson Chamisa.
He, however, denies the allegation. Chikonya also grilled
Masuka on the transparency of the land reform programme and how the 99-year
farm leases were being handled by the government.
“The 99-year lease issue has not been clear and if those
MPs in this committee do not understand what is going on and even after
applying for the lease agreements, they still have nothing,” Makonya said.
“What about those who are out there in communities. Have
you as the government spread the information on the status of the 99-year
leases to the people? We recently heard that farms were being given back to the
white people,” she said, adding “black farmers on resettled land were anxious
the government would evict them soon.”
However, Wadyajena retorted that the MDC-T’s policy on land
was that no party member should benefit from the land reform.
“Minister, the burning issue here is that MDC’s land policy
in the past was that no one member should accept a farm from the government.
Now … they also want farms,” he said.
“Give them farms when they come to your offices and treat
them as citizens. Do not look at politics. They are citizens of Zimbabwe and
want to engage in farming as well.”
Masuka also took the opportunity to announce that
government had embarked on an ambitious plan to create one million jobs in the
agriculture sector under the Structured Agricultural System, which will see
holders of A1 and A2 farms being turned into entrepreneurs to reduce food
imports.
“The 18 000 A2 farmers and 360 000 A1 farmers, if they
become agricultural entrepreneurs, then they will be able to employ more
people. It’s possible to employ up to one million people in agriculture. This
will ensure improved livelihoods. It must happen as we journey to 2030,” Masuka
said. Newsday
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