This is according to Dr John Purchase, CEO of the Agricultural Business Chamber, or Agbiz, in his reaction to the report. Purchase re-iterated that the whole issue of land reform is a complex one. Creating measures to re-dress the inequalities of the past, specifically with regard to land reform while maintaining and improving the competitiveness of agriculture while ensuring food security, requires further debate.  Purchase also highlighted divisions within the panel, referring to the proposals of the report as being based on “semi-consensus”. He regards the panel’s proposals as an effort to reframe land reform policy in general, because of government’s failure to implement land reform effectively over the last few decades. He further expressed doubts whether the ruling party will be able to achieve a two-thirds majority in parliament in order to amend the Constitution, as proposed by the panel and pointed out the obstacles that corruption posed to land reform in the past.

OFM News' Vernon Baumann spoke to him...

OFM News