CHIVHU – MDC Vice President Honourable Thokozani Khupe has said a new Constitution must guarantee that there is a land audit to rationalize a land reform process that was chaotic and outside the rule of law. The audit is facing fierce resistance from Zanu PF sharks, who grabbed up to six farms each. on Khupe however emphasized that there will be no return to the pre-2000 status nor will the present regime of wastage, corruption, under utilization and multi-ownership be preserved. Hon Khupe was speaking at a rally in Chivhu, where she told thousands that all parties in Zimbabwe recognized land reform was needed but differed on their approach.

Hon Khupe said the new constitutional dispensation must ensure there was a land audit to determine who really owns what land, and then issue deeds so banks can again finance farming. Zanu PF and the MDC pledged in an agreement that formed the inclusive government to undertake an audit of the land reform exercise which would see the government taking back land from multiple farm owners and those not fully utilizing it. Thousands of commercial farmers have led the country since 2000 and critics say the land reforms were responsible for plunging farm output and accelerated the collapse of the economy, whose recovery is the biggest challenge of the inclusive government, headed by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Khupe said the MDC wanted the Constitution-making process to undertake this rationalization through an Act of Parliament that would establish a Land Commission whose mandate would be to carry out an independent audit of land to establish the physical and legal status of all holdings.

“The land reform process has not achieved a desired or perfect outcome,” Hon Khupe said. “A Land Commission will resolve the land question once and for all. Land has been allocated to Zanu PF bigwigs and some have more than five farms each. Zimbabwe needs a land and agrarian reform to boost food security.” Hon Khupe said Zanu PF was resisting a land audit because land had been used by that party for political expediency. The European Commission (EC) has said it was ready to fund an audit of the chaotic and often violent land reform programme that is a key step to resolving Zimbabwe’s thorny land dispute, but the money has been lying idle, with the minister responsible Herbert Murerwa flatly refusing to get the cash to bankroll the audit.

“The Land Commission will expose the entire multiple Farm owners,” Hon Khupe said. The Changing Times understands the planned land audit was expected to cover 12,000 A2 farms, 108,000 A1 farms, 56,250 old resettlement schemes, as well as 6,000 small and large-scale commercial farms.

Hon Khupe said based on the principle of allocating land to all Zimbabweans regardless of one’s political affiliation, gender or race; one-man-one farm; need and ability, the MDC was keen to implement and coordinate a rational and participatory all inclusive and well planned resettlement programme . This would involve designing and defining the recommended minimum and maximum land holdings per region, ensuring the enactment of laws that guarantee the ownership of one household per one land holding, introducing an equitable Land Tax to discourage land wastage and multiple farm ownership, and carefully managing the transition to a people driven and human - centred land market.

While Zanu PF secretary Robert Mugabe has repeated his mantra that former colonial ruler Britain was responsible for paying evicted land owners stripped of their farms, the MDC wants to internationalize the issue of compensation so that

multilateral institutions and bilateral countries inextricably connected to the Zimbabwe crisis will bring in their resources to adequately compensate the erstwhile land owners.

The international community has previously made binding understandings as far as such support is concerned. Hon Khupe said the MDC wanted to enhance research and training in agriculture to boost food productivity. She said it was absolutely important that a new Constitution brings finality to the land grab programme. Many Zimbabweans hope a new charter, replacing the one penned in 1979 before independence from Britain, will rationalize the land grab, strengthen the role of parliament, curtail the president’s powers and guarantee civil, political and media freedoms as the country tries to rebuild its shattered economy. Mugabe’s Zanu PF seems uncommitted to the drafting of a new constitution which could usher in democratic reforms and expose the extent of multiple farm ownership, and had repeatedly sought to frustrate the process in a bid to delay elections that are supposed to follow.