From The Sunday Times (SA), 7 March

Mugabe's men fight over farms and hunting rights

Sunday Times Foreign Desk

In the aftermath of Zimbabwe's disastrous land reform programme, President Robert Mugabe's chief lieutenants are squabbling over the spoils of the government's land seizures. Zimbabwe seized land from white farmers under the pretext of redistributing farms to needy peasants and alleviating poverty. However, land disputes involving the political elite have exposed high-level greed and other abuses attending land reform. The latest disputes over farm seizures, as well as the dishing out of lucrative hunting concessions, involve Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, Special Affairs Minister for Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement John Nkomo, Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema and Matabeleland North provincial governor Obert Mpofu, among others.

Moyo, who has been linked to three other farms, is now at the centre of yet another controversy over a safari farm, Sikumi 2, in Dete near Hwange. The farm has a top-of-the-range lodge, Sikumi Tree Lodge, and was seized by the government before being parcelled out to a company controlled by Moyo. The lodge is an ecotourism facility that offers upmarket accommodation and photographic safaris to tourists. It was previously owned by a Mr B de Fries, through freehold, but was leased by the Rainbow Tourism Group, which tried to prevent Moyo from taking it over. Rainbow Tourism, in which the government has a 17% stake, wants Moyo out as it claims his presence is disrupting its tourism activities. Zanu-PF supporters in the area also want Moyo evicted because he is not from that region. However, despite his involvement in various farms, Moyo this week insisted that he had only one property, Patterson Farm in Mazowe.

Mpofu is also fighting with Rainbow Tourism and other stakeholders over two farms, Farm 40 and Farm 41, in the same area. And Mpofu is locked in a dispute with authorities over Wildlife Estate, a world-renowned heritage site that he seized two years ago. The farm has about 500 "presidential herd" elephants given special protection by Mugabe in 1991. Police are reportedly investigating Mpofu over his failure to bring foreign currency earned from hunting back into the country. Made, meanwhile, is embroiled in conflict over Chiumbiri River farm. Mugabe last year ordered party loyalists with more than one seized farm to give the rest up. But the government is still battling to repossess farms from leading party officials.

John Nkomo, who heads a presidential committee tasked with repossessing land from Mugabe supporters, says more than 400 farms have been taken back from members of Zanu PF's elite. He has issued a warning to those resisting government efforts to recover land, saying they face arrest as their acts constitute corruption. Nkomo is involved in a dispute with Zanu PF official Kenneth Karidza over Rocky Arlington farm, which also incorporates Mbizi game park. Nhema stands accused of granting hunting and photographic concessions to Zanu PF political heavyweights in Dete, Gwayi Valley, Hwange, Binga and Victoria Falls. Zimbabwe Defence Force commander General Constantine Chiwenga and Policy Implementation Minister Webster Shamu are among a string of officials who have been granted hunting concessions. However, disgruntled Matabeleland North Zanu PF officials and safari operators have cried foul - and have called for the eviction of ruling-party bigwigs from other areas. This has sparked a high-level fight within Zanu PF over land. The hunting industry is a money-spinner that generates millions in foreign currency.