Full contribution:
HON. MUDARIKWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for allowing me to contribute to this very important Bill which has been brought by the Hon. Minister. The Land Commission Bill is a continuation of consolidation of our hard won independence.
The history of displacement of our people, the Chimurenga wars were all fought because we had to take our land from the colonisers. The process that involved heroes of our struggle included Mbuya Nehanda and also Lozikeyi Dlodlo from Matebeleland.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I have mentioned her because at the end of the war, when they agreed to say we must stop war against the British settlers, she said I will never surrender until you give me my piece of land – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – That shows the importance of land and the importance of women in the struggle for land. She laid the foundation of our struggle.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the genesis of the Land Reform Programme is now based on the contribution and intelligence of this lady Lozikheyi Dlodlo, the supreme wife of Lobengula. When we talk of history, we must not choose where to begin from to say we have displaced white people.
We must also realise that the white people first of all displaced us. In collaboration with certain missionaries, they destroyed the social fabric of our society. First and foremost, they taught us to deny ourselves, they taught us to believe that we are guilty; we committed a crime that we did not know and we need to be baptized so that we are liberated in mind – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – This process of alienation, where you start refusing your father and your name. My name is Simbaneuta Mudarikwa if I go to a certain church, I must be given a European name, this is a processing of wanting you to deny your identity first.
The Bill before the House is so critical to the development of our identity; first and foremost as Zimbabweans across political divide. Mr. Speaker Sir, the Land Commission must also look at how – even if you give me title deeds, 99-Year Lease, if we do not look at the way how the Kenyans were displaced, we will have problems. Kenyans got land but they were displaced. They were given title deeds.
Mr. Speaker Sir, in this country as Parliament, as the august House, we are presiding over interests rates which if you add them, they will be between 20% and 30% per annum. This is criminal because in America the maximum interest rates is five percent.
Now, I have 99-Year Lease, I lose my land on interest rates which were pegged at 20%, it is criminal and it is unacceptable. The Americans charge five percent. Also the micro finance, they will say we want rollover every year.
What we are supposed to do is that there must be a Clause that when the land is being sold, if I owe somebody money, they must know how to calculate the interest rates. If it is more than five percent, the land must not be sold. You can sell all the tractors and irrigation pipes but the land must remain in the name of the farm owner – [HON. MEMBERS: Yes.] –
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