The government has adopted a new, controversial, land ‘reform’ policy aimed at ‘resettling’ the wildlife sector, as the countrywide rush to grab any remaining commercially viable land continues.

The programme has been adopted under the position of conservation and ‘sustainable use of wildlife’. The policy document, which was recently adopted by Cabinet, will see the roll out of three models of wildlife land ‘reform’ programmes.

National Parks and Wildlife Authority director-general, Dr Morris Mtsambiwa, last week said in an interview with the state-run Herald that the major thrust of the policy was to facilitate the indigenisation of the wildlife sector and to ensure more access by Zimbabweans to land and wildlife resources.

“All land under conservancies and game ranches shall cease to be an exclusive right of the few,” Dr Mtsambiwa said. “Those owning conservancies and game ranches shall be required to surrender portions of their land to accommodate indigenous Zimbabweans.”

The move comes as conservancy and safari owners have already reported being forced to give up their land, mainly to top ZANU PF affiliated officials. Most recently a top army official has become the latest in a string of high-level ZANU PF members who have grabbed wildlife conservancies in Masvingo, in a new exercise that could soon see the total destruction of the private conservancy sector.

Major General Engelbert Rugeje, who is the army's chief of staff, last month seized control of Wanezi Block Ranch in Mwenezi. Other unnamed senior army and police officers have apparently also seized vast tracks of land in the area. It is further understood that several conservancy owners in Mwenezi have been ordered to either vacate their properties or enter into forced 'partnership' with so-called 'beneficiaries' of the land. Rugeje joins the likes of Attorney General Johannes Tomana, President of the council of chiefs Fortune Charumbira and Chivi central legislator Paul Munyaradzi Mangwana, who have all grabbed conservancies in Masvingo, arguing the sector is too white-dominated.

Top government officials, including the Masvingo provincial Governor, Titus Maluleke, have been passing down orders to private conservancy and safari operators, to give up their lucrative businesses or enter into ‘partnerships’ with chosen individuals. They have reportedly compelled safari operators in the Save Valley Conservancy, a thriving wildlife reserve, to cede shareholdings from 50 to 80 per cent, to allies in the police and military, as well as party loyalists.

President of the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) Deon Theron on Monday said the surge for commercial land is nothing more than “racially motivated theft,” arguing that it “doesn’t matter what you are farming, or producing or even if the country needs what you’re producing, you will lose your land.”

“This is not about land reform or new policies or anything, this is just about taking as much as you can for your own gain,” Theron said. “If this is allowed to go then we’re headed for disaster.”

The commercial farming community has been left reeling by the intensified offensive to remove them from their land, with more than 80 farms forcibly seized since the formation of the unity government. But Theron said the community is more determined than ever to fight to hold on to their land. This includes Chegutu farmer Ben Freeth, who has travelled to Washington to ask the Obama administration to put pressure on the Zimbabwe government before it seizes the last remaining white farms.

Freeth has come under severe initmidation and attack for remaining on his Mount Carmel farm, and most recently his home, his parents-in-law’s home and the homes of his workers, were burned down in a suspected arson attack.