The Zimbabwean government has reaffirmed its resolve to the continued land redistribution exercise as a basis for empowering the local people in economic management, Times of Zambia reported Friday.
Zimbabwean Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Patrick Chinamasa told a news briefing here Thursday that currently over 11 million hectares of land from the 60 million hectares have been repossessed and redistributed among Zimbabweans.
He said some white farmers are still present in his country while some members of the opposition political parties are part of the people that have acquired land.
He acknowledged that the land redistribution exercise has affected the agriculture production in the country because the program was done in five years instead of the initial plan of 30 years.
He said the exercise had to be rushed because the white farmers did not want to comply and accept the agreements reached by the British government during the colonial era.
Chinamasa accused the Western media of being biased and portraying only a negative perception of the happenings in his country.
Some opposition political parties such as the movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are funded by foreign donors to cause trouble among Zimbabweans and destabilize the government policy, he said.
He wondered why the MDC is opposed to the land reforms when the idea is meant to benefit the Zimbabweans as opposed to foreigners.
Chinamasa is in Lusaka as delegation member of Zimbabwe to attend the two-day summit of Southern African Development Community (SADC), which opened Thursday.
In 2000 Zimbabwe embarked on a controversial land reform program that saw the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms that were handed over to landless blacks.
A small group of about 4,500 whites farmers owned a third of the country's land including 70 percent of prime farmland before the government launched the program in February 2000.
The land reform program, along with a combination of factors, including poor planning, lack of resources, HIV/AIDS and drought have led to a huge slump in Zimbabwe's agricultural production in recent years.
Source: Xinhua
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