EDITOR The land question is not a foregone conclusion; it is not closed chapter. The whole project lacked sincerity, transparency and was politically driven. Most of us wonder if there was a real land redistribution exercise in Zimbabwe.If a project causes untold suffering ro the people and only benefits members of the royal family, then its not sincere, relevant and not worth the undertaking.
The reason for empowerment of any kind should be to enrich the masses and the nation at large and not to impoverish them. If a project sows hunger, strife, starvation and conflict, it becomes destructive and unnecessary. Projects should be meant to save humanity from collapse.
As young people, we dismissed the unjustified land seizure as a non-event and unconstitutional. The whole project is a manifestation of plunder, greedy egocentric people on the pretext of addressing a so-called historical land imbalance.
It is a psychological creation through propaganda.
What we have in Zimbabwe is not a noble approach in solving land disputes. Land should have been distributed on a systematic willing buyer and seller basis and not have turned the whole country into a communal land system to create a false impression that they have genuinely given the land to the people.
Only willing and capable farmers those with the knowhow and the financial base should get the opportunity to farm.
It is our position as youths that every Zimbabwean, regardless of race, colour, creed or political affiliation, should be legally entitled to land. No political entity should have monopoly over land. It is everyones sovereign and God-given right.
We strongly believe that the progress of any nation the world over is not measured by the number of underutilised pieces of land given to its people, but is determined by the mental emancipation and empowerment of mind attained by its people.
It is not sincere to give people land when the people have not been ideologically empowered to manage it. It will be destructive.We therefore stand justified to dismiss the current land seizure as political madness.
It will be difficult for Zimbabweans at any time in history to accept a situation whereby it is only members of the political elite who own five or six farms and the rest of the population is landless. The injustice associated with land distribution makes it necessary to redefine the reason behind the liberation struggle.
The liberation struggle turns out to have been some kind of xenophobic attack on one hand and retaliation on the other hand for the s0-called ills of the past that are still with us today.
Land still remains in the hands of the political elites and those socially and politically connected to them.
Today we are far from the situation pre-independence of land being used productively to feed the entire nation. Instead, we have the current land grab, which is associated with hunger, poverty, starvation, suffering and oppression. This also goes on to administrative incompetence by African leaders.
It is a strong belief that no nation can develop against a background of oppression and injustice. Racial integration and mutual respect remain core factors for a nations prosperity.
Given this background, as young people, we will never support a fraudulent and primitive idea engineered by people who know the truth and what should have been done to keep the nation running.
JOHN VINCENT CHIKWARI, by email
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