Zimbabwe admits land 'chaos'

Official criteria for acquiring farms were not followed

Less than half the number of supposed beneficiaries have been resettled under Zimbabwe's land reform programme, an official report says.

The government has previously said that 300,000 black farmers had been given land seized from whites in the past three years.

But a report prepared by Charles Utete, a close ally of President Robert Mugabe, puts the figure at 127,192, according to leaks in two local newspapers.

The report also said that bureaucratic failings and political interference had hindered the process.

One part of the land reform programme was meant to create 50,000 black commercial farmers but just 7,260 families have been given land under this scheme, according to the privately-owned Financial Gazette.

UTETE REPORT 127,192 blacks resettled 8.6m ha (4,324 farms) seized 1,323 white farmers remain

Zimbabwe is experiencing economic meltdown, with shortages of basic foods, petrol and even banknotes and inflation reaching 455%.

Government critics blame this on the disruption of the land reform programme to agriculture.

Mr Mugabe blames a plot by western powers opposed to his reforms.

Criteria ignored

The government has seized some 8.6m hectares of land on 4,324 farms, the report says.

It says that 1,323 white farmers remained on their land - far above the 400 estimated by their representatives.

Mugabe blames his problem on a western plot

Although the government published clear and well-defined criteria for who would lose their farms - absentee landowners, those who had multiple properties, those near already black areas - the lists of seized farms often did not respect these.

Even some properties already belonging to the state were listed for compulsory seizure.

Many of those properties seized had previously been given a certificate, saying that the state did not want to acquire them, the report said.

"Many of these (properties) would, not infrequently, then be delisted via the same Government Gazette and the same newspapers in which they had been listed in the first place," the report says.

These failings have resulted in many of the white farmers who have lost their land appealing to the courts.

"As the committee went about its work, it could not fail to be struck by the number and the variety of legal issues that still required a resolution," the report said.