"Zimbabwe's Land Reform Justified, Says Coltart"

June 10, 2004
www.herald.co.zw

Key MDC legislator and fierce opponent of the land reform programme Mr David Coltart has made a U-turn.

He now says there is need to redistribute land which he said was unfairly taken away from the locals by colonial settlers.

Mr Coltart, the Member of Parliament for Bulawayo South, said this during debate on the Acquisition of Farm Equipment Bill in Parliament yesterday.

The MDC legislator, who is the opposition party's secretary for legal affairs, said he agreed that there was need to redistribute land since it was forcibly taken by the colonial settlers in 1890.

"We have always maintained that position that the landholding in this country was unjust and inequitable," Mr Coltart said.

In April, some policy drivers in the MDC and white former commercial farmers were up in arms against MDC leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai over a statement he made embracing land reforms.

The policy drivers expressed their concern in letters published under the open letter forum of the Justice for Agriculture, a lobbyist group for white farmers resisting acquisition of their farms for redistribution to the previously marginalized blacks.

In one of the letters, Mr Coltart said they had been inundated with messages of concern following the statement.

"I too was concerned when I first read it. I have not managed to speak to MT (Morgan Tsvangirai) regarding the statement as he is in Harare and I am in the civilised part of the country (Bulawayo) ...," said Mr Coltart.

Mr Tsvangirai had told South Africa's Sunday Independent newspaper that if his party came to power, it would not surrender land to white former commercial farmers.

"We cannot go back to the pre-2000 situation in which to Mr Joe Bloke, who has now run away to live in Australia, we say come and get back your land," Mr Tsvangirai told the paper. "We cannot go back to that," he said.

The Acquisition of Farm Equipment Bill, which seeks to provide for the acquisition of farm equipment not being used for agricultural purposes, sailed through Parliament yesterday without amendments.

The Bill was passed after a heated debate between ruling Zanu-PF MPs, who supported it, and opposition MDC legislators, who were against the law.

Before the Bill was passed, MDC legislators walked out of Parliament in protest after Deputy Speaker Cde. Edna Madzongwe had refused to divide the House so that MPs could vote to adopt or reject an adverse report by the Parliamentary Legal Committee on the Bill.

MDC Chief Whip Mr Innocent Gonese asked for the division of the House when Cde. Madzongwe ruled that those opposing the adoption of the report had won and, therefore, the adverse report had no effect.

Cde. Madzongwe said Mr Gonese had not called for the division of the House in time soon after the Zanu-PF legislators had shouted "No!!", while rejecting the adoption of the adverse report.

Mr Gonese insisted that he had called for the division of the House in time but his voice had been drowned by the noise in the chamber and challenged the Deputy Speaker on her ruling.

Cde. Madzongwe said that she was not going to rescind her decision and the opposition legislators, led by their leader in the House Mr Gibson Sibanda, stormed out in protest.

The legal committee had ruled that some provisions of the Bill, especially those relating to the compulsory acquisition of idle farm equipment or material, were unconstitutional as they violated section 16 of the Constitution (protecting private property).

The committee's chairman, Professor Welshman Ncube, said the Constitution only allowed for the compulsory acquisition of private property for specific reasons that included public and national security interests.

However, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde. Patrick Chinamasa said the committee in its adverse report had sought to make political, not legal, arguments.

"Section 10 of the Bill makes it very clear that the acquired property will be vested in the State for the land-reform programme that has benefited the public," he said.

The Government, Cde. Chinamasa said, was acquiring equipment that was lying idle in farm warehouses.

In his second reading speech, the Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office responsible for Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, Cde. John Nkomo, said some of the farm equipment was being destroyed and this was a cause for concern to the Government since such equipment was expensive and bought with scarce foreign currency.

"Our new farmers cannot afford to purchase the equipment because of the prices charged by the former farm owners and the Government realised this and sought to acquire the equipment for productive use," he said.

The Government, Cde Nkomo said, had always preached about reconciliation in the country and the white former farmers should reciprocate.

A lot of farm equipment or material that was previously used on the farms is lying idle since most of the resettled farmers cannot afford to buy it owing to prohibitive prices.

There is, therefore, need to have this farm equipment put to productive use for economic development, hence the proposal to compulsorily acquire the farm equipment.

In acquiring the equipment or material, the acquiring authority should give seven days' notice to the owner or holder of such farm equipment either personally or through publication in the Government Gazette or a newspaper circulating in that area.

Where there has been no agreement for the purchase of the identified farm equipment or material, the acquiring authority is authorised to compulsorily acquire such equipment.

The acquiring authority may then apply to the Administrative Court for an order confirming the acquisition of farm equipment or material where the owner or holder contests its compulsory acquisition.

Copyright (c) 2004 The Herald. All rights reserved.