eBusiness Weekly
HARARE – The Zimbabwe government has decided to evict 500 illegal settlers on farms across the country, as it moves to bring finality to the land reform programme which it started at the turn of the millennium.
Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri said Cabinet had resolved to evict the illegal settlers to also ensure stability on the farms.
“The illegal settlers are found throughout the farming areas so basically you find them in all the provinces. We have identified where they are and we are proceeding with the evictions,” he said during a post Cabinet briefing.
“We expect that they shall go back to where they came from. If they have got any challenges, well we have got the social department which can look into that, but our task is to ensure there is total stability on the farms.”
Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform programme to correct colonial land imbalances which favoured the white minority.
But, the programme also resulted in some people settling themselves unlawfully on pieces of land, a situation which the government is now trying to correct.
The government is in the process of conducting a land audit to assess utilisation patterns among other things, to open up under-utilised land for other interested citizens.
Meanwhile, Shiri said the government had entered into a Public Private Partnership to develop irrigation facilities on 443 hectares in the next 100 day cycle.
“It is sort of a PPP whereby we have got the private sector working together with Government and in this particular case the Japanese Development Agency coming in with the irrigation equipment and Government providing land and the training of farmers,” he said.
Other projects targeted under the 100 day cycle included fencing of 100 kilometres of Gonarezhou National Park, issuance of 500 A1 permits and production of 200 A2 farm diagrams.
Meanwhile, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the last Cabinet sitting of 2018 had approved the principles of Cyber Protection, Data Protection and Electronic Transaction Bill and the Zimbabwe Development Agency (Zida) Bill.
The Zida Bill, she said comes against the backdrop of the thrust to open Zimbabwe for investment.
An Education Amendment Bill was also approved which seeks to make it a right to basic state funded education at primary and secondary level, the right to further education which the state is enjoined to make progressively available and accessible.
“The above amendments will align the Education Act to the Constitution of Zimbabwe,” Mutsvangwa said. – New Ziana
