from NDABENI MLOTSHWA in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
BULAWAYO, (CAJ News) – THE Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal Rights Watch warned Zimbabwe would suffer further food insecurity if property rights were violated.
The warning came as the organisation held a property rights update meeting with farm title holders in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second capital, south of the country.
“As long as property rights remain elusive and the SADC Judgment is treated with contempt by the Zimbabwe Government and the Global Compensation Deed, the dire situation that Zimbabweans face will continue to persist,” Ben Freeth, spokesperson for SADC Tribunal Rights Watch, stated.
He said the signing of the Global Compensation Deed brought bring into sharp focus the fundamental reason as to why Zimbabwe was food insecure, “lacking in agricultural production and financially bankrupt.”
In July, the Zimbabwean government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed a US$3,5 billion compensation agreement with the country’s dispossessed commercial white farmers.
Zimbabwe, then under the presidency of Robert Mugabe (now late) embarked on a land reform programme that saw more than 4 000 white commercial farmers dispossessed.
Some 7,7 million Zimbabweans, half the population, are food-insecure, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
– CAJ News