Sunday Mail
UNCOLONISED – With Lowani Ndlovu
The fact that over the last three or so months following the last Cabinet reshuffle in March the historic fast-track land reform programme that was started in 2000 has been mired in bureaucratic controversies is reason for great concern among the uncolonised and the time has come to go back on track to finish the unfinished business by ensuring that every inch of our soil is in the hands of the indigenous black majority without fearing the machinations of neocols and their running dogs.
If the truth be told without fear or favour, it is now common cause that the splitting of the then Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement into the new Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the one hand and the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement on the other hand has resulted in the creation of unprecedented confusion around the whole land reform exercise and opened up huge doors and windows for Rhodies and their puppet associates to come in and cause havoc.
Between March and May, nothing appeared to be happening and many on the waiting list for allocation of A2 plots or resettlement under the A1 scheme raised questions about the standstill, wondering what was happening, perplexed by the silence and inaction by the new Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement.
Not only was there no inaction by way of new allocations and new resettlements but there was also silence regarding the gazetting of new land which meant that there was no acquisition of new land from Rhodies, many of whom still cling on to illegally acquired land.
When the public raised concerns about this situation, certain sections of the sellout media, especially the Mirror, that have now clearly come out as schizophrenic enemies of the people’s revolution, started exclusively focusing on what they claimed was the real issue about land reform: multiple farm owners who were said to be exclusively in Cabinet or the Zanu-PF Politburo.
Although there were attempts to give the impression that these alleged multiple farm owners were many, the focus was on a very few Cabinet ministers routinely dubbed as “mafikizolos” by the Mirror and newspapers like the Financial Gazette, Zimbabwe Independent and Standard.
Suddenly, a media alliance merged between these newspapers, unified by claims that a handful mafikizolos in Government were holding on to multiple farms. Surprisingly, and very disappointingly to the uncolonised, even the ruling party’s The Voice joined the opposition Press in pushing a weekly line that the main issue in the land reform programme was now that some mafikizolos were holding on to multiple farms against both Government and party policies.
Again, the targeted mafikizolos were no more than three or four Cabinet ministers – no need to mention their names here lest you become unnecessarily excited – who happened to be associated with the battle for Kondozi, pitting them against determined attempts that ultimately failed, which sought to keep that farm in the hands of Rhodies who were externalising forex earned from the farm and who had found black fronts to use to hold on to the farm.
In the heat of all of this mumbo jumbo, officials in the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement started issuing bureaucratic withdrawal letters to not-so-high-profile beneficiaries of the land reform programme. In virtually all the cases, these bureaucratic letters were issued so as to enable former Rhodie farmers to come back. Indeed, offices of these bureaucrats who were issuing the letters became known for being overcrowded with Rhodie farmers, making them a no-go area for the new farmer.
When the public media exposed this scandal, Minister John Nkomo denied in Parliament that any such withdrawal letters were being written from his ministry. Later he said the letters were fake. The rest is history. His officials, especially his permanent secretary and key staff, reacted with anger and many of them called the media with threatening messages claiming that the exposure of the letters was because of succession politics as if unaware of the damage they were doing by allowing Rhodie farmers to come back under flimsy excuses of promoting the production of wheat in winter.
The same officials promised that they would hit back against the mafikizolos whom they accused of being at the forefront of unexplained succession politics.
The matter got out of hand when the same bureaucrats who had written the withdrawal letters to ordinary people were exposed by the public media for using a presidential statutory instrument to acquire agricultural equipment for themselves when the equipment was meant for State institutions.
And the result? Apparently led by the embattled permanent secretary of the new Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, the bureaucrats who were caught with their pants down responded by joining forces with MDC’s David Coltart, who had earlier in the year claimed in Parliament that senior Zanu-PF leaders and some Cabinet ministers were multiple farm owners. Coltart produced a list in Parliament to this effect.
Zanu-PF, the majority party in Parliament, was naturally incensed and outraged by Coltart’s claims and charged that Coltart was violating his parliamentary privileges and immunities to push Tony Blair’s agenda of discrediting the land reform programme using a list that was essentially false and malicious. A committee to investigate Coltart was put together, chaired by Paul Mangwana and including Tendai Biti, Joyce Mujuru and Chief Jonathan Mangwende.
In what has clearly become irrefutable evidence of what surely must be evil collaboration between David Coltart – read the MDC – and some officials in the new Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, Coltart’s list tabled in Parliament became the basis of a new set of withdrawal letters which this time were not sent to ordinary new farmers but to Cabinet ministers and senior Zanu- PF leaders not by bureaucrats but by the Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement himself, Cde John Nkomo.
The fact that these letters were sent to the wrong people about the wrong properties is now common cause and this is a fact that can be verified independently. What remains a troubling mystery is why and how Minister Nkomo signed these letters, whose contents were scandalously false and malicious. The jury is still out on this point and, like the sun will for sure rise tomorrow, so will the truth.
Meanwhile, it is now very clear that the same officials in Minister Nkomo’s office, who earlier issued unwarranted and illegal letters of withdrawal of land offers to new black farmers to allow Rhodie farmers to come back, were angered by the response of the public media to their diabolic acts and have been on a revenge path against those whom they perceive to have been behind their exposure.
In the process, these offending officials have apparently been falsifying records of land reform since 2000 in the vain hope of justifying their false information about multiple farm ownership.
There is now a new and very big scandal where the Permanent Secretary in the new Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, Cde Simon Pazvakavambwa, has been colluding with some known officials of the old Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, now in Minister Nkomo’s new ministry, to falsify records, distorting them in the hope of creating and presenting a picture that has no basis in reality.
The new wave of withdrawal letters signed by Minister Nkomo two weeks ago are in this category insofar as they refer to either non-existent properties or to properties that were long withdrawn and re-allocated by the State. This is what was referred to last week in this column as “comical” and that remains a fact. The whole thing is very comical and unacceptable because it is political with nothing to do with law and policy.
As things stand now, the public fact out there is that Minister Nkomo and Coltart have one and common list of alleged multiple farm owners, yet the truth is that their list is false and malicious and that is the only thing they have in common.
Moreover, and this is what must now be addressed, officials in Minister Nkomo’s office are clearly manipulating records and falsifying information. The evidence of this falsification is too glaring and too embarrassing. In the interest of transparent governance, the matter cannot be left alone. There must be a thorough investigation and prosecution. No bureaucrat should manipulate the record that they inherit, distort and falsify it and hope to get away with it. No.
The land inspectorate and officials in the new Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement must be investigated as a matter of urgency because it does appear, from the face of it that some illegal activities have taken place for political purposes.
Unknown to those who have sought to manipulate the records of land reform is that many of the genuine cases have original copies of letters given to them by appropriate and lawful authorities.
Original letters of withdrawal and offers with original signatures of relevant Government authorities are there as are original letters of application and so forth.
In short, all the information that officers in Minister Nkomo’s office are trying to hide or distort is there in one Government office or another and certainly the affected people have their own original letters. Therefore, no amount of falsification can ever succeed in the same way that Zimbabwe can never ever be a colony, again.