Deputy National Housing Minister Yeukai Simbanegavi has unwittingly revealed how the ruling ZANU PF party was responsible for the emergence of land barons across the country.
Land barons are, in the Zimbabwean context, individuals connected to the ruling party and at times working with local authorities to illegally sell residential land to desperate home seekers.
In a video recording in which she was addressing a small crowd, the youthful minister said the intention was to enable all people to acquire land at low cost but the noble idea was hijacked by land barons. She said:
The government decided that for it to become easier for all people to acquire residential stands, it was prudent to find local people who would help with compiling names of home-seekers so that they would be able to buy land at low prices and to service the residential areas.
That is why you saw some people being allocated land who unfortunately turned into land barons.
Watch Simbanegavi speak in the video below: