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Nduduzo Tshuma Political Editor
WAR Veterans have hailed President Robert Mugabe’s calls for an audit to expose senior officials protecting white commercial farmers who still hold on to large tracts of land at the expense of the landless Zimbabweans.

President Mugabe, at a birthday bash hosted for him at the Victoria Falls on Saturday, revealed that former Zanu-PF Mashonaland East chairperson Cde Ray Kaukonde was shielding 163 white farmers in the province at the expense of desperate locals in need of land.

President Mugabe said the farm audit that uncovered Cde Kaukonde’s scandal would be spread to all the country’s provinces.

He said the white farmers were controlling sugar cane farms, coffee and plantation estates.

The President expressed concern at the Safari sector where white farmers continue to have a controlling stake and were externalising proceeds.

He said there was a need to revisit the sizes of some farms given to beneficiaries who are failing to fully utilise the resource.

Cde George Mlala, a member of war veterans’ council of elders said they welcomed the President’s statements as he sought to make sure that all Zimbabwean benefit from the land.

“What have those white farmers being protected by some senior officials done which is different from what the thousands who got land through the land reform programme are doing?” he said.

“What the president wants is a situation where the majority are the ones controlling their resources including land which we support as war veterans. It’s unfortunate that while many Zimbabweans are still yearning for land, there are many white farmers still holding on to large tracts of land.”

Cde Mlala said the attention on conservancies was long overdue as most white farmers had converted their farms to conservancies when the government declared a one-man one-farm policy.

He said the animals at the white owned conservancies were never accounted for meaning that the government was losing out on revenue.

“The revisiting of the farm sizes is timely again. There is no need for a person to hold on to large tracts of land when they cannot fully utilise it. Like the President said, we have to make sure that we keep some land for future generation so that they benefit from this resource also,” he said.

One of the pioneers of the land reform programme and war veteran Cde Jabulani Phetshu Sibanda challenged provincial ministers and district administrators to make public registers of farms in their offices to support President Mugabe.

“The President is the one who stood with the war veterans when they called for the redistribution of land when other politicians called for their arrest. We are happy that he has raised the issue of land which is very close to the hearts of freedom fighters,” said Cde Sibanda.

“We are therefore calling for all provincial ministers to make public their farm registers so that those protecting white farmers could be exposed. District Administrators and legislators should have registers for their respective areas made public.”

Cde Sibanda said there were some senior politicians who besides protecting white farmers, “corruptly” partitioned land to their relatives and also needed to be exposed.

Political Analyst Qhubani Moyo said policy review was part of the implementation process and the President was correct on the issue of revisiting farm sizes to ensure full utilisation of land that would boost food security in the country.

“President Mugabe wants to make sure that land is full utilised,” he said.

Moyo said it was important to reduce the sizes of the farms so that many landless Zimbabweans benefit.