Parliament criticises fast-track land programme

According to Zimbabwe's parliamentary lands committee the government's fast-track land resettlement programme has been hampered by a shortage of staff, transport, fuel, and lack of infrastructure, the 'Zimbabwe Independent' reported on Friday. The first report of the Portfolio Committee on Resettlement, tabled last month, said it was disturbing to learn that among the informal settlers were people who had been on earlier re-settlement schemes but had abandoned their plots. The committee, which visited farms in Mashonaland in the north of the country, said the absence of a specific budget to implement the fast-track resettlement programme would hamper the implementation of the exercise. The committee concluded that this, coupled with the shortage of fuel and stationery, raised doubts whether authorities in the region would be able to complete resettling people by July this year. More importantly, the committee said the fast-track resettlement programme should be implemented in a lawful manner. The committee noted that settlers had disrupted farming operations at farms which had not been designated for resettlement and law enforcement agents were not doing enough to right the situation.