The five-member Land Resettlement Committee appointed by President Robert Mugabe is believed to have completed an audit into what land was allocated to whom under the Zanu (PF) land-grab begun in 2000.
It has reportedly unearthed widespread evidence of corruption and the use of violence by senior politicians and military officers to evict landless smallholder farmers – the very people Mugabe claimed his “land reform” sought to help.
Those occupying more than one far are supposed to have relinquished the extra properties back to the state for onward allocation to “landless peasants” – but this has not been done, according to Mutasa's confidential audit.
This confirms widespread reports that the “land reform” not only precipitated a catastrophic reduction in crop production, but financially benefited the elite of Mugabe's ruling Zanu (PF).
Reports of abuses uncovered by successive groups of auditors have embarrassed Mugabe, who has staked his domestic reputation on the speedy transfer of land to Zimbabweans.
Stung by the series of damaging revelations, Mugabe gave his lieutenants up to June 30 to surrender their supplementary properties and remain with one farm each. But up to now only one Zanu (PF) official, Mines minister Obert Mpofu, is understood to have relinquished his extra properties.
The latest land audit team has reportedly presented its findings to Mugabe. Officials on the committee confirmed the latest developments.
"The committee has finalised its audit process and a report has been compiled," said a senior secretary in the President's Office who was part of the taskforce. "We will hand over the report to the ministers in the land task force who will consider what we have found out.”
The team was tasked to look into the chaotic handling of the land issue and came up with recommendations that would see the creation of a permanent office to deal with proper land reform. Like the Chiwewe Committee before it, the team said that areas protected under bilateral trade agreements, forestry estates or those which had Export Processing Zone (EPZ) licences should be exempt from compulsory acquisition.
Before the Chiwewe land audit, there was an audit by former secretary to the cabinet, Charles Utete, to investigate matters relating to an earlier land audit by Flora Bhuka, the then Minister of State in Vice-President Joseph Msika's office. Again it revealed that some of the violations of the land reform policy were committed by Mugabe's closest allies.
About 13 cabinet ministers and four provincial governors were named as having violated the "one man, one farm policy".
Post published in: News