South African opposition party, Economic Freedom Fighters, have accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of undermining the war of liberation that was waged by Zimbabweans through signing a deal to compensate white commercial farmers.
On Wednesday Mnangagwa said he will be giving US$3.5 billion to the disposed farmers who lost their land at the turn of the millennium when Zimbabweans engaged in a fast track Land Reform Program.
Read the EFF statement below:
The Economic Freedom Fighters notes the announcement by Emmerson Mnangagwa, the president of Zimbabwe, that his government has taken a decision to compensate the British occupiers of Zimbabwean land who lost their illegitimate rights to Zimbabwean land through the fast track land reform programme.
Mnangagwa announced that they had secured $3.5 billion to pay to British settlers for the loss of “their land”, through the Zimbabwean land reform programme, and hopes that this will bring closure to the instability brought about by the forced return of Zimbabwean land back to Zimbabwean people.
We are of the firm view that Mnangagwa is either deeply misinformed about the real causes of the crisis in Zimbabwe, or is simply catapulting to the pressure from the white supremacist world. Either way, the treasonous act of paying to white settlers money that Zimbabwe does not have will not resolve the crisis in Zimbabwe, which is essentially a political crisis resulting from years of mismanagement, at the centre of which Mnangagwa features prominently.
It must also be noted that the push for the repossession of the land in Zimbabwe was not initiated by the State. At the time Zimbabwe gained its independence, the framework for land reform was premised on a market-led land reform programme whereby the State, with the assistance of Britain, was required to purchase land from white landowners for land redistribution purposes. This was based on the 1980 Lancaster Agreement, which provided that the government would not engage in compulsory land acquisition and that land distribution would take place subject to the principle of ‘willing buyer, willing seller’, whereby the government would ‘pay promptly adequate compensation’ for property>chaosafrica
