Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. MDC Alliance legislators have confronted the government over “partisan” distribution of land saying even members of the opposition deserve to be allocated land since they are Zimbabweans also.
He made the remarks in Parliament during the ministerial question session while directing the questions to Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Anxious Masuka. Sikhala said:
There are many people from the opposition who have applied for land.
We have heard that land is being distributed on a partisan basis.
His remarks were reiterated by Southerton legislator (MDC Alliance) Peter Moyo who asked why Government was taking long to identify land lying idle. He said:
How many members from the opposition have benefited? We are all Zimbabweans and we deserve to be allocated land.
Only a handful of opposition members have benefited from the land reform programme with the majority refusing to take part when the initiative was launched at the turn of the millennium.
They argued that the programme was a ZANU PF initiative and they were also against the manner in which land was being distributed.
Minister Masuka denied allegations of partisan distribution of land saying there had been 200 000 applications of land, yet about 10 percent of these remained to be allocated.
The ministry of lands is reported to have asked both A1 and A2 farmers to submit productivity returns detailing what they had been doing on the allocated land as a way to identify unused land.
It is also reported that the process is being slowed down by over 8 000 land disputes that have spilt into the courts.
More: The Herald
