HARARE -- President Robert Mugabe's
government will launch fresh farm seizures to ensure every "native black
Zimbabwean" owned a piece of land by the start of the next rainy season
around November.
State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa,
who doubles as land reform chief, on Tuesday said the government would
move to take remaining land from white farmers for its controversial fast-track
resettlement programme, which analysts say has largely benefited Mugabe's
cronies.
Mugabe denies the charge, and his government says the reforms have created more than 500 000 black farmers, up from the 4 500 white commercial farmers who used to own 70 percent of the most fertile land in Zimbabwe.
The Harare government has also publicly said it had completed land seizures and was now working on improving output on the former white-owned farms.
But Mutasa told ZimOnline: "We are going to take the land from whites and we are not mincing our words about that ....we will not rest until every black person, every native Zimbabwean has a piece of land."
Mutasa's comments came in the aftermath of the passage in Parliament of a constitutional amendment Bill last week, which seeks to bar white farmers from challenging the seizure of their land in court.
He also told state media after the amendments were passed that the government would issue new title deeds to black farmers resettled under the much criticised reforms.
According to the amendments, farmers have up to 30 days to surrender title deeds once their land is gazetted for resettlement.
Most white farmers have clung to their title deeds even after being forcibly removed from their farms.
Mutasa yesterday said the unavailability of land to many Zimbabweans was partly responsible for worsening poverty in the southern African country. "We are poor not because we do not have the skills, but because we do not have the land which is what we fought for," the Security Minister said.
Government critics blame the land seizure drive, which was led by bands of war veterans from the ruling ZANU PF party, for destabilising commercial agriculture and plunging once food exporting Zimbabwe into severe food shortages since 2001. But Mugabe says repeated drought is responsible for his country's long-running food crisis.
Yesterday, farmers' organisations said their members had not yet accessed inputs and loans for the 2005/06 farming season, once again threatening production in the key sector. - ZimOnline