Zimpapers Logo

Dr Mujuru

Felex Share Senior Reporter
National People’s Party (NPP) leader Dr Joice Mujuru has come under fire for repudiating the objectives and gains of the liberation struggle by announcing that she would repeal the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act and the land reform programme, if voted into power.

She made the revelations in an interview on the British Broadcasting Corporation programme, HardTalk, that was aired yesterday.

“We are going to repeal it (indigenisation programme) because we are for investment. We want investors, both local and international, to come and help us as we are rebuilding the economy,” she said.

On compensating white former farmers, she said: “(There will be) fair compensation, there is law to that. We are for constitutionalism. The Constitution has to be followed, property rights have to be respected.”

Dr Mujuru drew brickbats from Zanu-PF and political analysts who said her utterances were “obstructive and hostile” to the well-being of Zimbabweans.

Zanu-PF Politburo member and Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said the land reform programme was final and irreversible.

In any case, he said, Government was compensating white farmers for developments.

“That land reform is irreversible, is endorsed in the new Constitution unless somebody amends that,” Dr Mombeshora said.

“On the issue of compensation of white farmers, there is nothing new. We are already doing that. Section 295 explains the ways of compensating that is on farms under BIPPA, farms of indigenous people and any other category.

She is not inventing the wheel at all. Her language is only meant to please the white masters, her handlers. We have actually introduced land rentals to collect money to compensate them, slowly though.”

Section 295 of the Constitution stipulates that: “Any indigenous Zimbabwean whose agricultural land was acquired by the State before the effective date is entitled to compensation from the State for the land and any Mujuru under fire improvements that were on the land when it was acquired.

2. Any person whose agricultural land was acquired by the State before the effective date and whose property rights at that time were guaranteed or protected by an agreement concluded by the Government of Zimbabwe with the government of another country, is entitled to compensation from the State for the land and any improvements in accordance with that agreement.

3. Any person, whose agricultural land was acquired by the State before the effective date is entitled to compensation from the State only for improvements that were on the land when it was acquired.”

Zanu-PF secretary for economic empowerment Dr Mike Bimha, said Dr Mujuru was out of touch with reality as industrialisation could not be achieved without empowerment of citizens.

“There is no country without an intervention to empower its people,” he said. “Any Government worth its salt ensures its people participate in empowerment programmes. If countries do that what more for countries which would have gone through a phase of colonial disturbances like us? It means we have to redouble efforts to do that.”

Cde Bimha went on: “As I am speaking, I am in Swaziland attending an extraordinary meeting looking at issues of industrialisation as a tool of moving towards regional integration. Industrialisation is here to stay in Africa. It’s an empty statement from Mujuru.”

Political analyst Mr Elton Ziki said Dr Mujuru’s remarks were against the national interest.

“What is clear is that when this country was colonised, indigenous black land owners were never compensated but they were made to work like slaves on their land and they were dispossessed of their heritage,” he said.

“That mandate to compensate does not lie with Mujuru, it lies with the people that have lost lives in the First and Second Chimurenga. Zimbabwe is bigger than an individual.”

Another political analyst and lawyer Mr Tendai Toto said Dr Mujuru’s statements were antagonistic to the welfare of Zimbabweans.

“The remarks are obstructive to the well-being of the majority of the Zimbabwean citizens as they seek to uphold and approve imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy,” he said.

“Otherwise there must have been carrot pledges by the British Government providing financial resources to make payment of compensation to the erstwhile white farmers who believe that one day white monopoly capital shall return to Zimbabwe necessitating the buying back of the land allocated to the black indigenous majority.

“The white population that is eligible to vote must treat the statements as unrealistic electoral fishing rods and bait cast unto them to reviving their appetite for glorious days of minority white domination. The ambitious ‘president’ must be practical and realistic and desist from misleading this once decorated electorate.”

Added political analyst Mr Tafadzwa Mugwadi: “Her statements show hypocrisy caused by a stampeded desperation to identify with opposition belief systems anchored on pro-Rhodesian land policies.

In other words, Mujuru is saying she wrongly joined the liberation struggle because it is common knowledge that the struggle was over land. It puts doubts on whether she joined the liberation struggle consciously or she was lured by something else.”