Harare - A newly appointed Zimbabwean provincial minister says all remaining white farmers must abandon land they still use, as he handed over “offer letters” for some farms still operating under white control to traditional leaders.
An offer letter is a document from the government overriding all previous documents or understandings or title deeds about the ownership of any piece of agricultural land.
Joel Biggie Matiza, who was recently appointed a minister in Mashonaland East province, said this week that all of the remaining 200 to 300 white farmers who have been working small parts of their original land holdings for the past 15 years since the land invasions began, must now go.
“We have invited all the chiefs in the province to this ceremony where we are honouring the chiefs by returning land to the ancestors and rightful custodians,” he said.
“In this province, we were protecting the very people who yesteryear were our erstwhile oppressors.”
Matiza was speaking about 90km southeast of Harare during the hand-over of offer letters to 19 of the Mashonaland East province’s 33 chiefs.
“This event is going to give a fresh outlook and perception in the way the land reform is going to be conducted in the province,” he said.
“Freshly mandated from a cultural perspective, the pro-vince will conduct a programme of land allocation. Chiefs, youths, war veterans, detainees, women, civil servants, diplomatic service and ordinary people will be considered.
“The white farmers who are carrying out farming activities on gazetted land will not be tolerated, as it is illegal in terms of the laws of the country. Farms that exceed the recommended sizes will also be down-sized starting in February, so that their sizes comply with government legal requirement on maximum size.”
The chiefs each got between 60 and 80 hectares of land.
Matiza said the province had 20 000 people on the waiting list for land.
Only white commercial dairy and cattle-breeding farmers or those who openly support Zanu-PF would be spared, he said.
- Foreign Service