Zim wants easier land grabs

2005-05-28 12:26

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said on Friday that his party is considering amending the country's constitution to make it easier for the government to take over land owned by the country's former white farmers.

He told a meeting of his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) that the government's controversial five-year-old land reform lacked finality. Under the land reform, thousands of white-owned farms were seized for redistribution to new black farmers.

"There are a few other areas of our constitution which we need to consider for amendment," Mugabe told senior party officials in comments broadcast on state television news. "These include that area that relates to land acquisition and land resettlement."

"That process [of acquiring land and handing it over to new black farmers] should have finality," he said.

It was not immediately clear what amendments the veteran leader had in mind, but in an apparent reference to the numerous court objections lodged by the former white landowners to the "compulsory acquisition" of their farms, Mugabe accused them of employing "delaying tactics".

Earlier this year, state media reported that the courts have to clear more than 5 000 challenges to the government's land takeovers.

Despite the court objections, only a few hundred or so white commercial farmers are still on their farms. Since 2000, Mugabe's government has taken over 5 890 farms measuring 7.8 million hectares for redistribution to black farmers.

Mugabe also expressed regret on Friday at some of the damage caused by a police operation to stamp out illegal activities in the country's towns and cities.

In Harare, the operation, dubbed Restore Order, has mainly been aimed at street vendors and flea market operators whom the government accuses of lowering the image of the capital as well as dealing on the black market.

Market stalls in Harare have been torched by the police and ramshackle settlements on the outskirts of the city have been flattened.

"Whilst we regret any damage that was done to places that did not need to be damaged, we are full of praise for the action the police have taken," Mugabe said. - Sapa-DPA

- SAPA