Only 35,000 people settled CFU

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) says only about 35,000 people have so far been resettled under President Robert Mugabe's fasttrack land reform programme, the 'Zimbabwe Independent' said on Friday. Opening the second session of the fifth parliament last week, President Robert Mugabe said that more than 100,000 households had benefitted from his programme.

"Land planning and infrastructual development teams are hard at work and many more families are set to be resettled before the coming of the next rains," said Mugabe in his speech. The CFU was quoted as saying that the figures quoted by the president were "designed for political capital and had no relationship to the reality on the ground".

"In the absence of more concrete evidence, there are fewer than 35,000 people not families on these commer cial farms today," said Hasluck. "People who are sitting on farms are not usually landless peasants but are people from ZANU-PF and its supporters," he said.

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) agricultural spokesman Renson Gasela was quoted as saying that Mugabe's figures represent all people resettled since 1980, not those resettled under the fast track scheme. "I don't know why the president lied to the nation," Gasela said.