HARARE, Zimbabwe (AFP) – President Robert Mugabe’s government yesterday presented a bill amending the constitution to create a senate and to allow the state to take over farmland.

Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, who introduced the bill in parliament, told AFP that the legislation “includes amendments to conclude the land question” following the seizures of some 4,000 white-owned commercial farms since 2000.

The Constitutional Amendment Bill would allow the state to assume ownership of farms immediately after a property has been officially listed for expropriation.

This will make it impossible for white farmers to seek legal redress.

It would also create a second upper chamber of parliament that critics say will be used by Mugabe for political patronage.

The reforms will also allow the government to confiscate passports and impose travel bans on Zimbabweans who are deemed as posing a risk to the “national, public and economic interests of the state”.

It marked the first time that Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party used its huge majority of 78 seats in the 120-member parliament to try to push through changes to the constitution.