State set to seize church farms

The government intended expropriating two Roman Catholic Church farms in Gweru, central Zimbabwe, under its fast track land resettlement programme, the independent ‘Daily News’ reported on Wednesday. The farms were listed as Bembezaan and Rome of Shasha Fountains and were registered to the Bishop of the Diocese of Gweru, the report said. According to a preliminary notice released by the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Dr Joseph Made, last week, the two Catholic farms are listed among 577 properties, which include one owned by Vice-President Simon Muzenda and another registered in the name of the President of Zimbabwe. Also on the list are four farms owned by two parastatals, the Cold Storage Company and the National Railways of Zimbabwe, the Bulawayo City Council and Philiat Matsheza, a war veteran and former chairman of the Zimbabwe Election Support Network, the newspaper reported. The Archbishop of Bulawayo, Pius Ncube, said they would definitely appeal to have the farms struck off the list, but preferred a member from Gweru to comment. A man who declined to be identified said by telephone from the Bishop’s house in Gweru that the government had informed them the listing was an error and the properties would be delisted. “We have talked to the government and they have promised to strike the farms off. Negotiations are continuing with the land committee,” he said.