The Zimbabwean Government said on Wednesday that it would evict 500 illegal settlers on farms across the country.
Especially as it moves to bring finality to the land reform programme which it started at the turn of the millennium.
Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister, Perrence Shiri, told a post-cabinet media briefing that Cabinet had resolved to evict the illegal settlers to ensure stability on the farms, state news agency New Ziana reported.
“The illegal settlers are found throughout the farming areas, so basically you find them in all the provinces. We have identified where they are and we are proceeding with the evictions,’’ he said.
“We expect that they shall go back to where they came from. If they have got any challenges, well we have got the social department which can look into that, but our task is to ensure there is total stability on the farms,’’ said the minister.
Zimbabwe embarked on the land reform programme to correct colonial land imbalances which favoured the white minority.
However, the programme resulted in some people settling themselves unlawfully on pieces of land, a situation which the government is now trying to correct.
The government is in the process of conducting a land audit to assess utilisation patterns to open up under-utilised land for other interested citizens. (Xinhua/NAN)
