Zimbabwe factions battle over farms

Zimbabwe factions battle over farms

NKOMO

• No nationalisation - Moyo

• Zim to nationalise land

• Supreme Court blow for farmers

• Zimbabwe land grab law challenged

• Nuns join land grab

• Farmer shoots settler dead

• Msika: "Not defeated on Kondozi"

• Kondozi farm worker shot by police

• Zim flogs farmers' equipment

• Nyambuya's workers desert farm

By Andrew Meldrum

JONATHAN Moyo, Zimbabwe's information minister, denied yesterday that Robert Mugabe intended to nationalise all farmland, saying the policy only applied to plots seized from whites.

His statement contradicted that of John Nkomo, the land reform and resettlement minister, who last week said the state would nationalise all agricultural land.

Mr Nkomo said Mr Mugabe's government would issue 99-year leases for farmland and 25-year leases for wildlife and conservation areas.

Yesterday Mr Moyo said nationalisation "only applies to land acquired by the state under land reforms and does not in any way invalidate or supersede other lawful forms of tenure".

His statement suggests factions within Mr Mugabe's government are vying with each other over land policy.

In addition to publicly correcting Mr Nkomo, Mr Moyo recently lost a very public battle with another leading official.

Confusion has often surrounded Mr Mugabe's land seizures, with the government saying one thing but doing another.

Only 10% of farmland is in private hands but it includes large plantations growing tea, timber and sugar. Although Mr Mugabe declared last year that land seizures had ended, the government has taken over more than 900 properties this year.

At Easter it took over Kondozi farm, a large business owned by a prominent black businessman, which grows and exports vegetables and fruits to British retailers including Tesco in contracts worth millions of pounds.

State agents invaded the farm, throwing 4,500 workers out of their homes.

The owner announced last week that he would move his business to Mozambique and Zambia.
The Guardian (UK)
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