President-elect Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said the country
will not return land seized from former white commercial farmers almost two
decades ago.
"It is now behind us, it is irreversible," Mnangagwa said in a speech to mark Heroes Day commemorations at the National Heroes Acre in central Zimbabwe, broadcast on television.
He said "the land reform programme was one of the fruits of the liberation struggle" and since it is "now behind us, it is irreversible." He said "the task ahead is to fully utilise the land to increase agricultural production."
"It is now behind us, it is irreversible," Mnangagwa said in a speech to mark Heroes Day commemorations at the National Heroes Acre in central Zimbabwe, broadcast on television.
He said "the land reform programme was one of the fruits of the liberation struggle" and since it is "now behind us, it is irreversible." He said "the task ahead is to fully utilise the land to increase agricultural production."
The Zanu PF land reform programme was a complete mess in that it
not only failed to give the land to those who needed it, the landless peasants,
forced to eke a living off marginal land. The need to resettle these people is
more urgent than ever now that unemployment has soared to dizzying heights and
so many of these people have no other source of income other than what they can
get off the land. We need to settle these peasants on land where they can earn
a decent living.
The other need to resettle people off overcrowded marginal land
is to give the marginal land the chance to recover from the decades of serious
land degradation.
Zanu PF gave the land to the party thugs and their families and
friends. The likes of Robert Mugabe and his family has 13 farms! These are the
individuals who were responsible for destroying the country’s economy through
gross mismanagement and wholesale looting and corruption.
75% of the population today live in abject poverty because of
the misrule by these Zanu PF thugs and their cronies. It is an outrage that
these thugs rewarded themselves by dishing out the land amongst themselves and
dragging the nation even deeper into economic trouble and despair. It would be
criminal to let the looters and their descendants keep the land, as a matter of
entitlement even when they have failed to put it to productive use, whilst the
victims of their misrule continue to suffer in damn anguish!
Of all the nation’s resources Zanu PF thugs have looted over
their 40 years of corrupt and tyrannical rule, land is the one resource the
people of Zimbabwe can recover from the looters.
The speed of Zimbabwe’s economic recovery will dependent on how
quickly the nation can recover the land from those now holding the nation to
ransom over this key resource.
Zimbabwe’s chaotic land reform carried out by this corrupt and
tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship is one of the reasons of Zimbabwe’s economic
collapse and for the country to have meaningful economic recover it is
imperative to reverse the reform. Land must be taken away from those who looted
it and given to the landless peasants.
“Land reform is irreversible!” said President Mnangagwa. Of
course, you and your fellow looters would say that and so did Ian Smith and his
Rhodesia Front friends before you. At least Smith and his cronies did put the
land into productive use for the economic prosperity of all; the same cannot be
said about you and your Zanu PF cronies. The economic, social and political
imperatives to reverse Zanu PF’s land reform are overwhelming and it will be
done!
7 comments:
@ Johannes Mufakose
"Not wise, participate to expose the gaps. The analysis too shallow."
Nonsense! What new "gaps" were exposed in this year's elections that we did not already know especially after the barbarism of the 2008 elections?
MDC leaders like Chamisa, Biti, etc. are taking advantage of many people who, out of ignorance and desperation for change, believed that the opposition can win rigged elections. The MDC leaders themselves knew that was not going to happen, they knew, with no reforms Zanu PF would rig and win the elections. They still wanted to participate because they also knew Zanu PF will be giving away a few gravy train seats.
Tendai Biti and a few opposition members got these few gravy train seats and that is all they care about. They will never admit that by participating they gave credibility to the flawed and illegal election process. It does not matter how flawed and illegal the election process gets people like Tendai Biti will take part in the elections.
President Mnangagwa and his junta can point to Tendai Biti and others as proof of how strong and vibrant Zimbabwe's democracy is.
@ Vincent Ndlovu
"It is disheartening to listen to people who claim to be reformists singing the same old and tired song of the MDC having supposed to implement reforms during the GNU and worse still talking about dismantling the ZANU PF system without offering how it should be done other than those who are trying are doing," you say.
What is disheartening is MDC leaders who do not want to acknowledge that they sold-out on reforms during the GNU and are taking advantage of the naïve and gullible people who have no clue what is happening to get back on the gravy train promising things they know they will never deliver. "MDC has stringent measures to stop Zanu PF rigging elections!" Chamisa promised knowing fully well that was just hot air.
MDC leaders are promising to dismantle Zanu PF when they are not doing any such thing. By participating in these flawed and illegal elections MDC leaders like Tendai Biti are giving credibility to process and thus helping to perpetuate the Zanu PF dictatorship.
I feel sorry for ordinary Zimbabwe who have been totally brainwashed into believing whatever the politicians say and do, no questioned asked. There are thousands of such fools who have no clue what the GNU was about much less that MDC leaders sold-out even now with the benefit of hindsight. We have more than our fair share of naïve and gullible voters and hence the reason Zimbabwe has sunk this low this fast into this economic and political hell-hole. And, what is worse, the nation will never ever get out of the hole as long as so many people remain in the sloth-like mental slumber.
"The question that needs to be answered at the moment is how to overcome the challenge that we have as a nation and not to sit in our comfort zones and talk about what should have been done. The Zimbabwe crisis is now beyond the ZANU PF vs MDC mantra, it needs men and women who will stretch their minds beyond partisan politics and come up with ideas to help both ZANU PF and the MDC to realise that democracy is not about elections and neither is it the panacea to all our problems. The country needs sober minds unclouded with party slogans and indoctrination. This blame game we seem to have been trapped in will not take us anywhere as a people," you say.
If you do not understand what you did wrong, how will you stop repeating the same mistake over and over again? That is exactly what we are talking about here, Zanu PF has remained in power for 38 years by rigging elections. MDC leaders had the golden opportunity to implement the reforms and stop the rigged. They did not only sell-out on reforms but worse still we are not allowed to talk about; be accused of playing the "blame game" if you do. The idiots are paying lip service to implementing reforms and again no one is allowed to question it because that will "partisan politics"! All utter nonsense of course!
Just for the record, thank God there is a growing number of Zimbabwean who refuse to follow leaders slavish and will not take orders from a self-appointed intellectual with very little working grey stuff between his/her ears!
@ Daily News
"Until the 11th hour, we had thought that, as Zimbabweans, we had matured politically and that this election would dodge the cycle of electoral contentions synonymous with most outcomes of past polls.
"We had hoped that the 2018 harmonised elections would be a departure from the Robert Mugabe era of political violence, harassment, intimidation and that Zimbabweans would complete this process peacefully and credibly.
"Indeed, everyone including the international world was prayerful that Zimbabweans had opened a new leaf, politically, and was ready to ignite a culture of tolerance among supporters of various opposing political parties."
Just for the record, none of the international elections were going to judge Zimbabwe's elections free, fair and credible on the basis of no "political violence, harassment and intimidation" even if the street protests and shootings of 1st August had never happened. There is a lot more to free and fair elections than just the absence of violence. There was no free public media, ZEC failed to produce a clean and verified voters' roll, Zanu PF robbed the nation blind to bankroll its vote rigging schemes; 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora were denied the vote, etc.
People have often complained about how patronising some outsiders are because they would pass things they would never allow in their own country so they can judge our elections free and fair. The real tragedy is that we are often guilty of lowering the standards ourselves. How has ever heard of free, fair and credible elections where the authorities have failed to produce something as basic as a clean and verified voters' roll!
What is at stake at this SADC summit is, obvious the recent elections in Zimbabwe, the upcoming elections in the DRC, Madagascar and South Africa.
SADC election observers in Zimbabwe said the Zimbabwe elections were free, fair and credible although there were glaring and serious irregularities such as the lack of a free public media, failure to produce something as basic as a clean and verified voters' roll, denying 2 to 3 million Zimbabweans in the diaspora the vote, Zanu PF robbing the nation blind to bankroll its vote rigging schemes, etc. SADC observers went to town about the elections being peaceful compared to say 2008 as if little else mattered.
Before the ink on the SADC report was dry, there was the street protests in Harare followed by the shooting of six civilians by the Army; a stern remind that even the peace could be guaranteed in Zimbabwe's highly volatile political reality.
SADC leaders will be left looking very foolish if all the other international election observers condemn Zimbabwe's elections are having failed to meet acceptable standards for free, fair and credible elections. They regional leaders will have more than egg on their faces if Zimbabwe's economic mess should get worse and the country become even more unstable.
Now that SADC leaders have agreed to lower the standard for free and fair elections to free of violence there is no doubt that there are going to be fewer and fewer truly free, fair and credible elections in the region! If the ordinary people in the region thought Zimbabwe's problem of failing to hold free and fair elections was none of their business, now they will learn the hard way that it is.
A top government official says Zimbabweans should be guided by the culture of Ubuntu which is embedded on love, peace and harmony saying elections are not war and as such people should be able to move forward in oneness for development to take place.
This is rich coming from the party that has just rigged the elections blatantly denying the ordinary people a meaningful say in the governance of the country so the regime's ruling elite can continue to loot the nation's resources. When is the culture of Ubuntu in the few filth rich living in obscene luxury whilst the overwhelming majority are force to live in grinding poverty and hopeless despair.
Zanu PF ruling elite are aware of the chasm that has opened between the rich and poor in the country and they are concerned about the growing restless of the impoverished majority who anger and frustration with their lot is now a pressure cooker the ruling elite are fearful will explode in their faces.
Minister Mpofu, people want jobs, clean running water, working health care services, etc. and all this Ubuntu appeasement is only inflaming them because they can see the sheer hypocrisy behind it all. You rig elections so you can continue to loot the nation blind and you want the victims to say nothing about the glaring injustice of it all in the name of keeping the peace and Ubuntu culture. How convenient!
Roman poet Horatio,- "It is sweet and honourable to die for the fatherland."
When nation has been asked to honour those who risk life and limb for freedom, liberty, justice, human rights, one-person one-vote, etc. and has done so. It is most disheartening to then find that yesteryear's liberators have become today's oppressors deny the ordinary man, woman and child their freedom, liberty, etc., etc.
Zimbabwe has just gone through an election process and no one can ever claim the election was free, fair and credible. How can that be possible when the authorities failed to produce something as basic as a verified voters' roll. The ruling elite claimed victory but cannot say who exactly voted for them!
The nation endured so many hardship and so many lives were lost during the war of independence it is really depressing that by right another war should have started after independence because the overwhelming majority of our people never even tasted any of the things independence promised! Dying for common cause is one thing; dying for a tyrant and his cronies is a different proposition, it is a curse for which there can never be RIP!
I agree Zanu PF thugs and their dependents must not be allowed to keep what the looted from the people. They are the ones who benefited during the years of the the lawlessness and once rule of law is restored, they cannot be allowed to continue to benefit frow the stolen wealth whilst the rightful owners of the wealth continue to suffer. This would be a gross miscarrage of justice
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