Hon. Minister, I will now turn to the 99 year lease, which is a programme introduced by the whites between 1950 and 1960 during the construction of the Highfield suburb in Harare for the accommodation of blacks. My advice to the Land Commission is that this 99 year lease should be a bankable document so that it gives confidence of tenure to the family. The current offer letters have a clause which states that the residents are at the whims and will of the Minister who may evict them any time he feels he needs use of that land. Faced with such a scenario, farmers are not productive. They lack the necessary security of tenure and feel they may lose out because they can be evicted at any time. On the other hand, 99 year leases lead to development but whereas nobody lives for 99 years, the family can continue progressing on the piece of land depending on the 99 year lease.
Hon. Minister, I will now turn to the point of payment for the land which was acquired by the Government. It was stated that Government does not pay for the land but only for developments on that land. In some instances, the infrastructure has since been destroyed by the new tenants but Government is still required to pay for that infrastructure because it was destroyed by the tenants. I therefore advise these new farmers to work hard and benefit both financially and developmentally so that Government can receive taxes from them to pay for the land acquired.
Of late, our Government has been blamed for not compensating the farmers whose land was taken by Government to distribute it to the landless blacks. We know that Zimbabwe is a land which believes in law and order and protection of property rights, which can only be upheld by developmental farming, payment of taxes and rates leading to the compensation of white farmers.
I am advocating that the Land Commission Bill be empowered to have prosecution powers and should not be overridden by any responsible Ministers. This Commission should not be used by the Minister as a political laptop but should be a people’s desktop; not a Minister’s lapdog but a people’s watch dog. This will enable the new farmers to be productive because historically, we have heard people saying whites were doing the farming and yet in actual fact, they were armchair and distance farmers. The only farmers who were on the ground were the blacks who were given the land. I support the Bill and I thank you Mr. Speaker.
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