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Not govt policy to give land to political parties: Mnangagwa

Politics
VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has said government has no policy allowing parcelling out of land to any political party.

VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has said government has no policy allowing parcelling out of land to any political party.

BY VENERANDA LANGA

Mnangagwa was responding to questions in the National Assembly from Harare West MP Jessie Majome (MDC-T) on Wednesday, who wanted clarity on the decision by Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere to parcel land to Zanu PF supporters and youths ahead of 2018 elections.

“Each municipal area has its residential area and it can only be allocated upon application to land developers or to the government arm which is Udcorp,” he said.

“That is government policy, and so if that was the issue, which the honourable MP was seeking to find out — whether it is government policy that political parties can apply as political parties to acquire land, no, we do not have that.”

Lands minister Douglas Mombeshora was also at pains to explain the same issue to MPs, preferring to say his ministry parcelled out agricultural and not residential land.

“First and foremost, my ministry is responsible for agricultural land. When it comes to urban land, which is residential, it is the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing which is responsible for urban planning, demarcating and allocating for residential purposes,” he said.

“However, it is my ministry which is responsible for handing over any land required for urban expansion to the Ministry of Local Government. We do that when that land has been requested for. So, we only give a whole farm to the Ministry of Local Government, but how they distribute it, is actually that ministry’s responsibility.

“We do not get involved. So, I am unable to answer the latter part of the question to say, is it distributed only to one particular party or not?”

MDC-T chief whip, Innocent Gonese then demanded that Mombeshora bring a list of every farm that he has handed over to the Local Government ministry in order for MPs to know how the land was being parcelled out.

Majome claimed that Zanu PF youths and even some bigwigs were currently being issued land in Shawasha Hills.