ZANU-PF MP says it is now time to recognise that farming is a business not leisure

Full contribution:

*HON. MARUMAHOKO:  Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.  I also want to make my contribution in support of this Land Commission Bill because it is going to lead to productivity and high produce in our agriculture programme.  Let me take you back a little bit regarding this land distribution.  When the war of liberation was at its peak, there was an announcement which was made calling for peace talks at Lancaster House in Britain.  The parties that were invited to Lancaster peace talks included the Rhodesian Front, which was representing the whites, ZAPU which was led by the late Cde J. N. Nkomo and ZANU led by the current President, Cde R. G Mugabe, which were representing the armies which were fighting the war.

When they met at Lancaster House they agreed that there was suffering in Zimbabwe hence the need for the peace talks.  The steps which were put on the agenda on how Zimbabwe could be independent were based on land redistribution and a one man one vote.  The issue regarding land redistribution was so contentious to the extent that it brought the talks to a deadlock.  People even threatened to go back to the bush and continue with the war.  It took the persuasion of Cde. Samora Machel,  the then President of Mozambique to persuade the protagonists to continue with the peace talks.

Cde Mugabe and Cde Nkomo wanted the land to be given to the people hence the saying “son of the soil and daughter of the soil”.  This brought us to a situation where the Britons conceded that when the country was liberated, they would buy farms which would then be redistributed to the black people of Zimbabwe.  This was going to be on a willing buyer, willing seller basis.  When they scrutinized that method they discovered that the willing farmer would be the one who would be in the arid land and hence the programme would fail.

It was with the persuasion of Cde. Samora Machel that ZAPU and ZANU continued with the peace talks.  Their argument was that if land was not returned to the indigenous people of Zimbabwe, the war would have been fought in vain.  They were looking at the war of liberation in retrospect from the war of liberation fought by Mbuya Nehanda to the Second Chimurenga where people had to go to Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania and all those other countries which gave assistance during the war of liberation.  Hon. Members, when we talk of land redistribution we are talking of the lives of the indigenous people of Zimbabwe.

Cde Mudarikwa, in his contribution said that if you do not have land you do not have an identity.  In other words, you lack dignity and we had come to an extent where the indigenous people of Zimbabwe lacked dignity because they did not have land.  Now that land has been given to the indigenous people, it means we have fought and won the war of liberation since land was redistributed in the year 2000 and is still ongoing.

Hon. Minister, you brought this Bill so that you can empower the Land Commission to enable it to follow productive and highly technical ways in its operations.  We support the fact that Zimbabwe is a country which has an agro-based economy.  Immediately after the war of liberation, we started working on productively developing Zimbabwe and we have now been fighting the land redistribution programme.  So what we should be concentrating on is looking at the proper methodologies and full support of the farming programme to enable us to have a bumper harvest and return the bread-basket status of Zimbabwe.  My advice to you is that you have been given a chance to redeem Zimbabwe from the clutches of poverty and when you are fighting a war, you fight for whatever it is that you want.  After the war, you then look for ways of solving the problems that led to that war.

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