The Sunday News
Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has assured the nation that Government will not be using taxpayers’ money to compensate former white commercial farmers for the developments done on the farms but will instead outsource funding through a committee comprising farmers and officials assigned by Government.
Addressing a Zanu-PF Midlands Provincial Co-ordinating Committee in Gweru yesterday, President Mnangagwa said the historic land reform was irreversible and only improvements that were made on farms will be compensated for under the Global Compensation Deed Agreement using money sourced from outside the country.
The President dismissed misconceptions, misinterpretations and misrepresentations that the recently signed a US$3,5 billion Global Compensation Deed Agreement was meant to reverse the land reform programme and give back land to former white farmers.
President Mnangagwa said the revolutionary party will never deviate from its revolutionary ethos where land was one of the main reasons for going to war.
“Our (former) colonisers took our land and we waged a war that culminated into independence and we took (land) it back and that will never change. We, however, have few individuals who fail to understand or comprehend our Constitution, Section 295 of the Constitution. We had a Lancaster House Constitution which we used until 2013 but we decided as a people that we need a home-grown Constitution and that Constitution retained the provision,” said President Mnangagwa.
He said the Lancaster House Constitution had a clear provision on compensation which was to be done without using tax payers’ money.
“The position is that as Zimbabweans we shall not pay compensation for land and that remains so. That provision provides that we shall pay compensation for improvements done on the farms and since 2015 we have been having a provision in our budget allocating funds to pay the compensation for improvements, we are saying no taxpayer’s money will be used to pay that compensation,” he said.
President Mnangagwa said there was a committee involving all stakeholders including former white farmers which will be mandated with sourcing the funds for the compensation. The President said compensation was also going to be done gradually.
“We have set up a committee including former white farmers to go to Europe where they will raise the money . . . then we hear some individuals who are unable to comprehend just one provision and say we want to reverse the land reform, NO!
The purpose of the revolution was our land and we shall not deviate from that, we shall not depart from our land.”
