Bethel Christian Party leader and one of the 23 presidential candidates for the July 30 elections, Dr Willard Mugadza says there is need to revisit the land reform program as it was not endorsed by God.
Mugadza who intimated that he was called by God to lead the nation as far back as 2013, told 263Chat, in a wide ranging interview, that although the land reform was necessary, the whole process was violent and unacceptable before God.
“God is not happy with the manner in which we took the land, the land is very important, there are no two ways about it and it is not debatable.
“But the process that we used was not acceptable before God, therefore, it is important from a Christina perspective that we ensure that we ask for forgiveness from the white commercial farmers’ in order for us to have our agricultural land and our own farmer blessed by God.
“It is a biblical principal and we are going to ensure that we adhere to it,” said Mugadza, who holds a doctorate in Law.
The ZanuPF led government embarked on a fast track land redistribution exercise from 2000 and beyond, forcibly confiscating white farms without compensation and hundreds of people lost their lives in the process.
The exercise was bitterly criticized for the violence and intimidation which marred several expropriation and the parallel collapse of banks which held billions of dollars’ worth of bonds on liquidated properties.
If elected, Mugadza said he will, in his first 100 days, call for an Indaba between his government officials and former commercial white farmers who lost their land during the land invasions at the turn of the millennium.
Questioned on how we would address the Gukurahundi atrocities, Mugadza said under the matter would be dealt with from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC)
“Under the OPC, I’m going to spearhead the debate an at least see the conclusion of the talk with regards to the Gukurahundi genocides. We will do this not through the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC). This is very important because this issue is highly sensitive and an extremely church matter and an institution such as the NPRC is unable to handle,” noted Mugadza.
He said he would use the biblical principles to get closure on the issues.
The NPRC was created with the aim of investigating the Gukurahundi atrocities and other political violence incidents which occurred in the country since independence.
According to the Catholic Commission for Peace and Justice, more than 20 000 people were killed by the government-sponsored North-Korean trained Fifth Brigade soldiers in the 1980s in Matebeleland and Midlands Provinces.
Mugadza pledged to bring the nation together while noting that the current divisions are not doing well for the country.
