Opposition supports Mugabe’s land reform plan

Zimbabwe’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), gave cautious support on Thursday to the government’s new phase of land resettlement, news reports said. “The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) welcomes phase two of the land resettlement scheme by the ZANU-PF government, but questions the ruling party’s ability to follow through the plan,” opposition spokesman Learnmore Jongwe said in a statement on Thursday.

Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made was quoted as saying that the scheme aimed to “de-racialise” commercial agriculture. “The initial benefit of putting people on land under the scheme will be food security, employment creation and economic growth,” Made said. People to be considered for resettlement under the scheme have to mobilise their own resources to invest in the agricultural projects. News reports said that thousands of applicants, among them businessmen, professionals and retrenched workers, have thronged the lands ministry offices to collect forms for the scheme since Monday.