The Movement for Democratic Change, which was accused of being so pro-West that it would return the land to the whites if it came power, says it was never against land reform but it was against the haphazard way the land was acquired and the allocation itself which ignored the black majority.

It said it was therefore essential that those with more than one farm should surrender the other farms to enable landless Zimbabweans to benefit.

The MDC also called on its supporters to apply for land and not to be ashamed to be associated with the land reform programme.

“The MDC would like to call upon all its supporters who are in need of agricultural land to promptly apply for land allocation at the relevant government departments,” party spokesman Obert Gutu said.

“ All deserving Zimbabwean citizens, including MDC supporters, shouldn’t be ashamed of applying for land under the land reform program.

“The MDC has never been against the underlying principle of land reform. All we have been clamouring for is that the land reform should be undertaken in a holistic, sustainable and non–partisan manner.

“Those Zimbabweans who grabbed several farms under the land reform program should be made to relinquish these multiple farms and remain with only one farm per family to enable other landless Zimbabweans to also benefit from the land reform exercise.

“The land reform program shouldn’t be abused and bastardised in order to create land barons.”