The Sunday Mail
The Ministry of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former political Detainees and Restrictees is inviting those under its jurisdiction, who have been facing threats of eviction from land, to register their complaints. The Sunday Mail Reporter Grace Kaerasora interviewed the responsible minister, Colonel (Reitred) Tshinga Dube to understand the issue. Below are excerpts of that conversation.
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Q: Your ministry is calling on people it superintends to register cases of evictions from land or failure to access the resource. Can you give us a background to this exercise?
A: Land is one of the very pertinent subjects now. People went to the liberation war and it was all about land. Now, after the liberation war when we decided to get our land back, it was the British who made some certain clauses that would never make it possible for us to attain our land as we wanted, but as time went on people became fed up.
So the political leadership were concerned, but they were also being diplomatic with the British to discuss and have talks about land. But towards the end of the 1980s and beginning of the ‘90s, the war veterans themselves — who were instrumental in fighting for land — lost their tempers and forced their way into the land.
They went into white-owned farms, forced some farmers to retreat, and went away because the white farmers were very arrogant. They were not willing to accommodate blacks and then these war veterans said, “Look we spent many years in the bush fighting for land, now here we are back home, we want land.”
The same people that we were fighting to get our land back from are still occupying the land so we must force ourselves to get the land because first of all, remember the Government tried to negotiate with the British that they must pay the landowners so that they can give this land to the people who were in need.
The British then refused to pay so the war veterans began to grab the land; they grabbed the land left, right and centre and occupied it. But we had to put some order so land could properly be allocated to people.
Q: But I still do not get the background to the latest call for war veterans, ex-detainees and restrictees, former political prisoners, war collaborators, non-combatant cadres, war victims and widows of heroes to register with your office over their evictions from land and failure to get land. Can you clarify the issue?
A: When the war veteran’s organisation was formed the President gave directives that 20 percent of the land must be given to war veterans.
Well, some of the land was given to war veterans, not all the 20 percent, but quite a number of war veterans got land.
Now more people want land and they cannot find it.
They are beginning to stretch their hands to the land which was given to the war veterans.
There are two problems.
When land was given, some of the war veterans were not given offer letters, but they just got that land and they have occupied it for the last 15 years or so and now because of the demand for land, people go around and say this land is not registered so we are taking it and these men and women are saying “No, I have been here for 20 years, I was given the land.”
Those who want the land say, “You have no offer letter so we are taking the land.” So there has been a lot of problems of that nature.
We are working very well with the Minister of Lands, but he does not always get the truth from his lands officers. Sometimes they tell you lies that land is not utilised.
I know one fellow who even had 300 cattle who had a contract with Koala but they went to the Lands Minister and said the land was not occupied. The minister will say, “Okay, take the land.”
The President is not happy at all with this issue of getting land which has been offered to war veterans to give it to some people who are demanding land.
Q: You seem to suggest that only members under the purview of your ministry are being targeted, are you sure it is deliberate?
A: Reasons are that sometimes they want to develop an area and they take away from the war veterans and they do not give an alternative, sometimes it is somebody who does not like war veterans and uses his influence to take away the land and so forth.
The biggest problem is corruption. You see, these lands officers are given money by the land barons. Once they have pocketed money, they find someone they can push out then they take that land.
The biggest issue is that many war veterans who own land cannot utilise it fully because of financial constraints. These land barons have money.
You find that at the same time, our land policies have not been very clear; our distribution has been willy-nilly.
Sometimes we hear that so many thousands of stands have been given to the youth. What will the youth do with land? Yes it is good for them to be looked after but they cannot develop the land because they haven’t got the resources; not because they don’t know the value but it will be better to give them something they can utilise.
All I have been saying is that you see, instead of giving someone land, who you know has no income, it is better to build a house then you can occupy the house.
Like you know now, civil servants had been promised land for houses, but our argument is: are they the last batch of civil servants? What happens 10 years from now? Where will more land come from?
It is the same with the youth. Every year a new crop of youth comes in. Those boys who are 10 years now, in five years they will be 15 and they are already in the youth category. So what do we do? Where are we going to get land if we have given it away?
We have created precedence; we have to follow that precedence. We cannot go on changing games.
Q: Are there particular areas countrywide where your members have been most affected by the issues you are highlighting?
A: The whole country, it affects war veterans from all parts of the country, from all over. We even have some provincial ministers who seem to have some attitude against war veterans instead of helping them. The land barons are really causing havoc because they have money.
Most of the areas we have had problems so far are in Mashonaland central.
Q: So what do you think is the best way or best strategy going forward?
A: That’s why we are trying to gather all this information so that we put it up to the Patron of the war veterans, the President. We are saying he can assist.
We have been talking, we know the Ministry of Lands has been trying its best, but they don’t seem to be winning the war.
As we know land is for everybody but we need a more polished way of distribution.
We give to the youth; now the widows say we are living in rented houses we want land; war veterans will say we are also living in rented houses we want land, give us land for building our houses; the collaborators will say the same.
Now where do we get that land? We do not have it. But if you can give one group land, why not give the others because they are all deserving?
Q: It is almost a year since your ministry organised a meeting of members under its ambit with the President where a number of issues were raised. A year down the line, have the grievances of the people you represent been addressed?
A: Yes, we are trying. The problem is really the lack of funds, because of these sanctions which are still biting us we haven’t had any meaningful money coming to us.
We haven’t been able to do much, we are doing the little that we can.
If instead of US$6 million we are given US$1 million, we use it for the school fees and so forth. There are more problems coming up than solutions.
The grievances within the war veterans have not been helpful, so it diverted from addressing their problems but we are trying to get into projects, to try get us a bit of money to help the Ministry of Finance.
All concerns have been met but not in full. The constraints are financial, we have been paying the fees, we have been paying for the medical problems and burials, we have started even on these income generating projects but they are at infant stage.
So everything that we promised we are doing.
We are importing some maize and we want to go into mining and the Minister of Mines has agreed to give us some claims and we also are trying to form a security company that will be run by war veterans.
We have a quarry, a conservancy. I think before the end of this year, we should be reaping something.
