HAVING enshrined in the Lancaster House Constitution that the triumphant Government of the liberation forces could not exercise the right of conquest the way the British had done for 90 years, they (the British) compelled the new Government to fight another war to liberate the land, through the legislature this time. 

Throughout this battle which raged until 2010, the British revealed an unrepentant robber mentality which still defied and denied that the people of Zimbabwe had a right to their ancestral land despite having suffered so much at the hands of the British to liberate it.

By April 2000, it was clear the people of Zimbabwe would go it alone; but the British continued to oppose compulsory land acquisition, insisting on their ‘willing-seller, willing-buyer’ mantra. 

Consequently, Government invoked its right of conquest by amending the Lancaster House Constitution (April 2000),  relinquishing any obligation to pay for land it repossessed.

On passing the April 2000 Bill, the late Vice-Presidents Simon Muzenda and Joseph Msika and the rest of Parliament broke into the song, ‘Zimbabwe Ndeye Ropa’.

Meanwhile, also as of April 2000, war veterans and land-hungry people of Zimbabwe, cognisant Government hands were tied by the intransigent ‘willing-buyer, willing-seller’ clause, began ‘invading’ white-owned farms.

The white farmers, instead of accepting that they were unlawfully on Zimbabwean soil, which they seized through robbery, organised their farm workers to attack the war veterans. 

But the war veterans and the people of Zimbabwe were the victors in the war of liberation, hence fighting the whiteman was nothing new. 

They still overwhelmed and defeated the settlers. 

To the whites it did not matter that they had murdered thousands in the First and Second Chimurenga for land which was not theirs in the first place. 

It did not matter, Africans had no human rights; they could be kicked out of what was theirs without recourse at law.

The battle for land in Zimbabwe, through the legislature, was not easy. 

The legislature was still Rhodesian in essence, but the Government had an ace up its sleeve. 

Key state instruments, such as the police, were headed by the liberation forces; thus Cde Dumiso Dabengwa, as Minister of Home Affairs, and Cde Augustine Chihuri, as the police chief, would not comply with court orders to use force to evict the war veterans and the masses.

The two amendments to the Lancaster House Constitution (April 2000 and May 2000) enabled the Government to launch the Fast Track Land Reform and Resettlement Programme on July 15 2000. 

The whites, represented by Tim Henwood, were adamant: “We do not believe farms can just be taken away without compensation.” 

He said this about land which they had taken without compensation or compunction? 

This is the British robber mentality.

Meanwhile, the war veterans, the conquerors, were oblivious to anything the whites wished or wanted. 

Exercising their right of conquest, they vowed to continue repossessing land.

Whites resorted to violence to stop land reform as observed by Muchemwa in his book The Struggle for Land in Zimbabwe (1890-2010):

“The violence by the white settler-farmers erupted in very well organised groups, assaulting land occupiers, in particular war veterans and Agritex officials. 

At Liston Shield Farm in (Chinhoyi) , which belonged to Antony Barkley, 22 white farmers were arrested after assaulting and injuring resettled farmers. 

In Karoi, European farmers at Ansdel farm, owned by Rockwood Eastates (Private Limited), and Peveril Farm, owned by Marshall Henry Roper, caused violence in their bid to evict war veterans, the government responded by deploying the army to peg farms and to ensure security and speedy land reform.” 

This, notwithstanding that Peveril Place and Ansdel Farm, totalled 22 852 370 hectares. 

To keep such vast estates to themselves, they unleashed violence against the very war veterans who liberated this land.

The battle for the land through the legislature took a decisive turn with the forced resignation of Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay for the Supreme Court after ruling that the Fast Track Land Reform Programme violated fundamental human rights of the white settlers enshrined in the Constitution.

When the new Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, ruled in favour of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme against the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) challenge of December 3 2001, the whites would still continue to defy the laws of the land.

They unleased horrendous acts of sabotage, spraying poison on thousands of tonnes of harvested maize; destroying hectares of maize still on the fields; vandalising farm equipment; and concealing farm equipment in warehouses so as to export it to neighbouring countries. 

Muchemwa notes that: “Between January and April 2002 the GMB siezed 7 280 tonnes of white maize from European settler-farmers who were refusing to declare their white maize to the GMB.” 

We see an unbroken trail of violence from the days of the First Chimurenga when they destroyed crops on the African fields in order to force the people of Zimbabwe to surrender due to starvation as well as looting cattle and small livestock including chickens to force our people to surrender. 

In the trail of such genocidal aggression, the British claimed victory and right of conquest.

A final victory in the legislature battle for our land was on May 8 2002 when Parliament passed the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill which gave Government rights on all land listed for acquisition. 

Not surprisingly, the MDC cast 37 votes against ZANU PF’s 61 votes for the Bill. 

They voted against their own people to protect the whiteman, their British pay masters. 

Those who feel so special to align themselves with the MDC should remember that its purpose in Zimbabwe is traitorous.