Faster Gono
Beatific Gumbwanda
CHIREDZI – Zimbabwe Sugarcane Milling Industry Workers Union (ZSMIWU) secretary general, Rtd Maj Faster Gono has threatened to expose multiple farm owners in the district, saying the time had come for such corrupt people to lose their ill-gotten land.
Gono told TellZim News that his stance against corrupt land ownership patterns – that are characterised by some individuals controlling vast tracts of land or multiple farms – has cost him many friends, and has of late seen him being removed from many influential WhatsApp groups.
He said he warned top Zanu PF members that he wanted those injustices corrected so that more people can be brought into the sugarcane farming business.
Many top Zanu PF officials have more than one farm each while others have over 50 hectares of land in one holding.
“My first area of focus is to fight corruption in Chiredzi. We should correct the injustices that have been committed against our people. We have individuals with more than 50ha of net cane yet the rule is that one family should have one farm. Those with more than 50ha should share with others so that more families can have their own pieces of land,” said Gono.
He called upon members of the public to investigate and report cases of multiple farm ownership, and expose those who bribe land officers.
“People should also assist in reporting such cases of people who think they are clever. I know more than 200 of such people and three of them are war veterans. And the rest are people who have money to bribe people at the district lands office. We have detailed information on our fingertips and it will soon be all over for those people,” Gono said.
Gono, who was part of winning Zanu PF Chiredzi West parliamentary candidate, Farai Musikavanhu, in the recent elections, has been vocal in his criticism of corruption in the lucrative sugarcane farming business.
The Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Rtd Air Marshal Perence Shiri has also came out strongly against multiple farm ownership, saying government had instituted processes to correct those imbalances.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has also said government was looking at oversized and underutilised farms so that they could be cut and allocated to other deserving people.local
