Top Zimbabwe government and ruling party officials who have acquired multiple farms must surrender the extra farms for peasant resettlement or risk imprisonment for "theft" of state property, John Nkomo, special affairs minister in President Robert Mugabe's office, has warned.
Nkomo, who was tasked with overseeing land reform and resettlement after the recent cabinet reshuffle, said influential people who were refusing to give up extra farms as ordered by Mugabe last year were violating the country's laws.
In an interview with the state-controlled Sunday Mail, Nkomo cited one unnamed senior official in the Mashonaland West region who had seized four farms but was refusing to surrender them.
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"In such cases we will proceed by way of summons," Nkomo told the Sunday Mail.
| 'We say no to corruption' |
"That is theft of state property."
"Some of the land they are refusing to surrender has some infrastructure for which (the) government is to compensate the former white commercial farmers."
Nkomo said the "sad scenario" was that senior people who were supposed to lead by example had got themselves lots of farms.
"It becomes a problem when the seniors engage in such activities."
"Who will the juniors learn from?" he asked.
He said government was doing its best to fight corruption.
"We say no to corruption. Any withholding of excess land is tantamount to corruption," he said.
Mugabe last year appointed a team to carry out a land audit after an earlier probe by one of his ministers had unearthed massive corruption in the land reform exercise.
The land audit team exposed massive corruption in the land reform programme and said many top officials had acquired several prime farms.
Nkomo said those still hanging on to these farms despite Mugabe's order were committing theft.
"That is theft of state property," said Nkomo.
"Some of the land they are refusing to surrender has some infrastructure for which the government is to compensate the former white commercial farmers."
Nkomo said on Monday while some officials had heeded Mugabe's call to quickly give up the excess land, some senior people had refused to do so.
"This is the corruption we are talking about that we want to get rid of," said Nkomo.
"Where is that individual going to get the funds to compensate the former owner for the improvements if he or she does not surrender the excess land to government which in turn is expected to meet the costs of compensation?"
Nkomo said some wildlife conservancies allocated to some people who had already acquired other properties would be repossessed regardless of their positions in the political circles.
The Sunday Mail said most conservancies had been allocated to influential people with each one being allocated more than 100 000 hectares.
Nkomo also reminded beneficiaries of the land reform that it was illegal to lease the land they had been allocated as it remained state land.
Many beneficiaries who cannot raise money to farm have been sub-leasing their land to third parties.
Nkomo's remarks seem to exemplify Mugabe's frustration with his cronies most of whom he had allowed to do whatever they want when his land seizure drive began in earnest in 2000.
Most went on to seize many prime farms each.
After he ordered them to surrender extra farms after winning the 2002 presidential election, many of the cronies are believed to have corruptly registered the extra farms in the names of relatives and friends to disguise their multiple ownership.
- This article was originally published on page 5 of Pretoria News on February 24, 2004
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