Mnangagwa says farmland is not for sale

AGRICULTURAL land is not for sale and anyone found selling farms allocated to them under the land reform program will face the music, President Mnangagwa said.

Addressing Zimbabweans employed at the United Nations headquarters in New York over the weekend, the president said that when the government took land from white people to settle hundreds of thousands of landless black people, it was legislated that the land was not for sale.

Zimbabweans in the diaspora have shown keen interest in investing at home, owning farms and being part of President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030, to make Zimbabwe an upper middle class economy.

President Mnangagwa said that the Diasporas were essential to the modernization and industrialization of Zimbabwe through the transfer of skills and assured them that they would always be integrated into the country’s transition and economic activities.

He, however, warned them not to fall prey to scammers selling farmland.

“The land is in three categories, there is agricultural land, which is not for sale. Farmland is not for sale. We issued 99-year leases. Then there are the urban lands which are in full ownership, which are bought and sold. Then there are the communal lands that you engage with traditional chiefs.

“It is illegal in Zimbabwe to buy farmland, you can only buy freehold land, which is urban,” President Mnangagwa said.

He said freehold land is now hard to come by since people have been resettled.

“However, each province has a Lands Committee, chaired by the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, this committee is responsible for discovering lands that are not properly used, underused or abandoned, this is what we redistribute “, said the president. said Mnangagwa.

The President said that the Provincial Minister, when land is discovered, gives a recommendation to the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development who then delivers a letter of offer.

Every year, the country receives more than US$1 billion in remittances from the diaspora and President Mnangagwa said this makes people abroad vital to the country’s development.

“Under the Second Republic, we embrace all Zimbabweans in the diaspora. Wherever I go, I make sure that the ambassador in that country organizes a meeting for me to meet people from the diaspora. Many of our people have acquired skills in the Diaspora and we want those skills to come back to us because nyika inovakwa nevene vayo and we own them, whether you are in the Diaspora or at home.

“Second, a country is ruled by its own people, tega muZimbabwe hatifanire kutonga nyika tichiudzirwa nevarungu kuti tongai makadai, hatiwirirani. Those who want to work with us are welcome but on our terms. This is how we are modernizing Zimbabwe. We need to industrialize Zimbabwe”.

The president said the country’s modernization can be rapid if done by Zimbabweans and not foreigners.

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