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Vol 44 No 22

Published 7th November 2003


Zimbabwe

No chance, Mr President

Party officials and military commanders are ignoring President Mugabe's orders to surrender their farms

Several government ministers and senior military officers accused of grabbing farms are refusing to hand them back to the state, according to a new report on land reform ordered by President Robert Mugabe. Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo and 13 other ministers have secured several farms in violation of the government's 'one man, one farm' rule, the report says. Details of ministers' and officers' holdings are contained in a confidential annexe to the main report, which has been discussed in cabinet. Mugabe asked former Secretary to the Government Charles Utete to investigate the findings of an earlier land audit by the Minister of State in Deputy President Joseph Msika's office, Flora Buka. This had found major abuses of the land resettlement programme by senior officials (AC Vol 44 No 4). Buka's audit reported that some of the worst violations of the land reform policy were perpetrated by Mugabe's closest political allies, such as Air Vice-Marshal Perence Shiri, Minister Moyo and Mugabe's sister, Sabina Mugabe.

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