Land bill angers donors

The Zimbabwe government’s proposed Rural Land Occupiers (Protection From Eviction) Bill which seeks to protect farm invaders from eviction has angered the donor community, the ‘Zimbabwe Independent’ reported on Friday. Donors have accused the government of going back on promises it made in a letter to the UNDP at the beginning of the year. Diplomatic sources this week said the government had undermined the goodwill that had been created after UNDP administrator Mark Malloch-Brown’s visit to Zimbabwe in December. Zimbabwe had in its response to Malloch-Brown’s findings affirmed its commitment to non-partisan and organised land reform that would not disrupt production. The newspaper quoted diplomats as saying that the proposed legislation would not promote orderly resettlement but merely increase tension on the land. They said there was abundant evidence on the ground to show that the exercise was partisan and still lacked transparency. The donors have stressed that they will only come in to assist land reform if the government respects the resolutions of the 1998 donors conference held in Harare which the UNDP brokered. The Independent also reported this week that the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) was seeking legal advice with a view to challenging the constitutionality of the proposed Bill. “We are seeking legal advice from experts as government aims to negate both the Supreme Court and High Court rulings,” said a senior CFU official. “Our strategy as a union is to come up with the best of the advice before we announce our official position. Currently a team which includes Tim Henwood is making preparations on how to handle the proposed Bill which government seeks to bulldoze through parliament and pass into law without considering its constitutional flaws.” The proposed Bill seeks to legitimise the presence of war veterans and illegal settlers on commercial farms, an issue critics say had badly knocked the performance of the agricultural sector which is key to the survival of the country’s hard-pressed economy.