Mugabe daughter fights off gold diggers as land reforms return to bite her
Old farm machinery at a burnt-out farmhouse at Mount Carmel Farm in Chegutu, a 1,200 hectare commercial farm, about 107km southwest of Harare, on September 10, 2019, that 10 years ago was owned and run by British settler Ben Freeth. PHOTO | AFP
Two decades after seizing land from white commercial farmers for redistribution to black Zimbabwean squatters under controversial agriculture reforms, the government is now taking back sizeable chunks of it from the beneficiaries for redistribution.
Ironically, it appears the first victims are the family of the late president Robert Mugabe, the initiator of the reforms. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government says it is downsizing commercial farms to ensure maximum utilisation of land, but those targeted say the agrarian reforms are once again being used to punish the ruling party’s critics.
