| The Western press casts him in the role of an | | | | production, jobs and social stability." |
| African Saddam Hussein. Neighboring leaders | | | | This second phase broke down in mutual |
| supported his policies but then succumbed to | | | | recriminations. The government made an election |
| diplomacy and world opinion and, with a few notable | | | | issue out of the much-heralded reform and the |
| exceptions, shunned him. The opposition in and its | | | | donors delivered far less than they promised. Acutely |
| mouthpieces accuse him - justly - of brutal disregard | | | | aware of this friction, white farmers declined to offer |
| for human, civil, and political rights and of undermining | | | | land for sale. |
| the rule of law. | | | | Even as lawless invasions of private property |
| All he wants, insists Comrade - his official party title - | | | | recommenced in earnest, the government initiated |
| Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is to right an ancient | | | | the Fast Track Land Reform Plan in mid-2000. It |
| wrong by returning land, expropriated by white | | | | envisioned the purchase of between 5-8 million of |
| settlers, to its rightful black owners. Most of the | | | | hectares of agricultural land, the resettlement of the |
| beneficiaries, being war veterans, happen to support | | | | rural indigent, the provision of infrastructure, technical |
| his party, the Zimbabwe African National | | | | advice and inputs by both civil and military authorities |
| Union-Patriotic Front, or ZANU-PF, and its profligate | | | | and the involvement of all "stakeholders" - especially |
| largesse: | | | | white commercial farmers - in an on-going dialog in |
| "We must deliver the land unencumbered by | | | | the framework of the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement |
| impediments to its rightful owners. It is theirs by | | | | Initiative. |
| birth; it is theirs by natural and legal right. It is theirs | | | | But the Plan fast deteriorated into strong-arm, |
| by struggle. Indeed their(s) by legacy." - he | | | | threat-laden, and litigious confiscation of white |
| thundered in a speech he made to the Central | | | | property. Following a setback in the polls - its |
| Committee of his party in March 2001 in response to | | | | proposed constitution was rejected - ZANU-PF aided |
| mounting multi-annual pressures from war veteran | | | | and abetted in the disorderly - and, sometimes, lethal |
| associations. | | | | - requisitioning of farms by a mob of war veterans, |
| It was Margaret Thatcher of Falklands fame who, | | | | mock veterans, petty criminals, the rural |
| after two decades of fierce fighting, capitulated to | | | | dispossessed, party hacks, and even middle class |
| rebels, headed by Mugabe. The Iron Lady handed to | | | | urbanites. Ironically, the very anarchic nature of the |
| them, in the Lancaster House agreement, an | | | | process deterred genuine and the long term settlers. |
| independent Zimbabwe - literally, "Great Stone | | | | About 2000 farms were thus impounded by the end |
| House". The racist Rhodesia was no more. But the | | | | of last year. The government refused to |
| agreement enshrined the property rights of white | | | | compensate farmers for the land seized insisting that |
| farmers until 1990 and has, thus, sown the seeds of | | | | such reparations should be paid by Britain. It did, |
| the current chaos. | | | | however, provide pitiful sums for infrastructure |
| Many nostalgic white settlers in Zimbabwe - mostly | | | | added to the land by the white settlers. |
| descendents of British invaders at the end of the | | | | As pandemic corruption, lawlessness, and |
| 19th century - still believe in their cultural - if not | | | | mismanagement brought the country to the brink of |
| genetic - superiority. Their forefathers bought | | | | insolvency and famine, Mugabe tainted with |
| indigenous land from commercial outfits supported by | | | | anti-Western diatribe his merited crusade for |
| the British Crown. The blacks - their plots and | | | | reversing past injustices. He lashed at the IMF and |
| livestock confiscated - were resettled in barren | | | | the World bank, at Britain and the USA, at white |
| "communal areas", akin to Native-American reserves | | | | farmers and foreign capital. Xenophobia - no less that |
| in the USA minus the gambling concessions. | | | | patriotism - is the refuge of the scoundrel in Africa. |
| Starting in 1893, successive uprisings were bloodily | | | | In 1997, Britain's New Labor government ceased |
| suppressed by the colonizers and the British | | | | funding the acquisition of land from white farmers. |
| government. A particularly virulent strain of apartheid | | | | Donors demanded matching funds from destitute |
| was introduced. By 1914, notes Steve Lawton in | | | | Zimbabwe. By 1999, the entire West - spearheaded |
| "British Colonialism, Zimbabwe's Land Reform and | | | | by the IMF - disengaged. Zimbabwe was severed |
| Settler Resistance", 3 percent of the population | | | | from the global financial system. |
| controlled 75 percent of the land. The blacks were | | | | This was followed by sanctions threatened by the EU |
| "harshly restricted to a mere 23 per cent of the | | | | and partly imposed the USA and the Commonwealth. |
| worst land in designated Reserves. There were only | | | | Sanctions were also urged by prescriptive think |
| 28,000 white settlers to nearly one million Africans in | | | | tanks, such as the International Crisis Group, and |
| Zimbabwe at this time." | | | | even by corporate and banking groups, such as |
| Land ownership hasn't changed much since. The 1930 | | | | Britain's Abbey National. |
| "Land Apportionment Act" perpetuated the glaring | | | | Yet, discarding land reform together with Mugabe |
| inequality. At independence, according to "Zimbabwe's | | | | would be unwise. The problems - some of which are |
| Agricultural Revolution" edited by Mandivamba Rukuni | | | | ignored even by the Zimbabwean authorities - are |
| and Carl Eicher and published in 1994 by the | | | | real. A negligible white minority owns vast swathes of |
| University of Zimbabwe Publications, 6000 white | | | | forcibly obtained prime arable land in a predominantly |
| commercial farms occupied 45 percent of all | | | | black country. |
| agricultural land - compared to only 5 percent tilled by | | | | A comprehensive - and just - land reform would |
| 8500 black farmers. Another 70,000 black families | | | | cater to farm hands as well. They are mostly black - |
| futilely cultivated the infertile remaining half of the soil. | | | | about one fifth of the population, counting their |
| As black population exploded, poverty and repression | | | | dependants. They live in shantytown-like facilities on |
| combined to give rise to anti-white guerilla | | | | the farms with little access to potable water, |
| movements. The rest is history. The first | | | | sanitation, electricity, phones, or other amenities. |
| post-independence land reform and resettlement | | | | They were not even entitled to resettlement until |
| program lasted 17 years, until 1997. It targeted | | | | recently. |
| refugees, internally displaced people, and squatters | | | | According to "Rural poverty: Commercial farm |
| and its aims were, as Petrunella Chaminuka, a | | | | workers and Land Reform in Zimbabwe", a paper |
| researcher at SAPES Trust Agrarian Reform | | | | presented at the SARPN conference on Land |
| Programme in Zimbabwe, summarizes a 1990 | | | | Reform and Poverty Alleviation in Southern Africa, in |
| government discussion paper in the "Workers' | | | | June 2001, only about one third of the most |
| Weekly": | | | | destitute black farm workforce have been imported |
| "To redress past grievances over land alienation, to | | | | as casual and seasonal workers from neighboring |
| alleviate population pressure in the communal areas | | | | countries. |
| and to achieve national stability and progress. The | | | | The rest, contrary to government propaganda, are |
| programme was designed to enhance smallholder | | | | indigenous. Yet, protestations to the contrary |
| food and cash crop production, achieve food | | | | notwithstanding, the government, preoccupied with |
| self-sufficiency and improve equity in income | | | | relieving growing tensions in the communal areas and |
| distribution." | | | | rewarding its own supporters and cronies, refuses to |
| Land reform was an act of anti-colonialist, | | | | incorporate farm hands fully in its Fast Track |
| ideologically-motivated defiance. The first lots went | | | | Resettlement Program. They are being accused of |
| to landless - and utterly unskilled - blacks. Surprisingly, | | | | causing previous resettlement programs to fail. |
| theirs was a success story. They cultivated the land | | | | The problems facing Zimbabwe's agricultural sector |
| ably and production increased. Certified farmers and | | | | are reminiscent of the situation in Mozambique, |
| agronomists, though, had to wait their turn until the | | | | Namibia, Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, and South Africa. |
| National Land Policy of 1990 which allowed for | | | | Namibia has already threatened to emulate |
| compulsory land purchases by the government. | | | | Zimbabwe. Sam Nujoma, the country's president, |
| There was no master plan of resettlement and | | | | rebuked the market mechanism as "too slow, |
| infrastructure deficiencies combined with plot | | | | cumbersome and very costly". An understandable |
| fragmentation to render many new farms | | | | statement coming from the head of a government |
| economically unviable. | | | | which, according to Namibian news agency, NAMPA, |
| As ready inventory dried up, the price of land soared. | | | | turned down 151 farms last year for lack of funds. |
| Droughts compounded this sorry state and by the | | | | "Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Constraints and |
| late 1980's yields were down and squatting resurged. | | | | Prospects", edited by T.A.S. Bowyer-Bower and Colin |
| Unemployment forced people back into rural areas. | | | | Stoneman, notes that development, growth, and |
| Egged on by multilateral lenders, white farmers, and | | | | poverty alleviation in the continent are directly linked |
| Western commercial interests, the government | | | | to the ownership and cultivation of land - often the |
| further exacerbated the situation by allocating | | | | sole means of production. That no regional approach |
| enormous tracts of land to horticulture, ostrich | | | | to this pressing issue has arisen attests to the quality |
| farming, crocodile farming, ranching and tourism thus | | | | of the self-centred, thuggish, and venal African |
| further depleting the anyhow meager stock of arable | | | | leadership. |
| acreage. | | | | Politically-motivated land reform will lead to the |
| International outcry against compulsory acquisitions or | | | | emergence of the next generations of the deprived |
| targeting of c. 1600 farms forced the Zimbabwean | | | | and the discriminated against. Resettlement has to be |
| government and its donors to come up in 1997-9 | | | | both fair and seen to be fair. It has to be based on |
| with a second land reform and resettlement | | | | unambiguous criteria and transparent and |
| programme and the Inception Phase Framework Plan. | | | | even-handed procedures. It has to backed by |
| Contrary to disinformation in the Western media, | | | | sufficient agricultural inputs and machinery, financial |
| white farmers and NGO's were regularly consulted in | | | | and technical assistance, access to markets, and |
| the preparation of both documents. | | | | basic infrastructure. |
| In what proved to be a prophetic statement, the | | | | The proximity of services and institutions - from |
| aptly named Barbara Kafka of the World Bank, | | | | schools to courts - is critical. Above all, land reform |
| quoted by IPS, gave this warning in the September | | | | has to look after people displaced in the process - |
| 1998 donor conference: | | | | commercial farmers and their workers - and thus |
| ''We are delighted that the government has called this | | | | enjoy near universal support or acquiescence. Legal |
| conference as a key step in our working together to | | | | title and tenure have to be established and recorded |
| make sure that Zimbabwe reaps the results it | | | | to allow the new settlers to obtain credits and invest |
| deserves from its land reform programme ... | | | | in buildings, machinery, and infrastructure. |
| Nevertheless, we must not be naive. The downside | | | | Alas, as both Human Rights Watch and the UNDP |
| risks are high. There is abundant international | | | | concluded in their detailed reports, none of these |
| experience to show that poorly executed land | | | | requirements is observed in Zimbabwe. Hence the |
| reform can carry high social and economic costs ... For | | | | recurrent failures and the blood-spattered chaos they |
| instance, a programme that does not respect | | | | have produced. Is Mugabe to blame? Surely. Is he the |
| property rights or does not provide sufficient support | | | | prime mover of this debacle? Not by a long shot. He |
| to new settlers, is underfunded or is excessively | | | | merely encapsulates and leverages pernicious social |
| bureaucratic and costly, or simply results in large | | | | forces in his country and in the continent. Until the |
| numbers of displaced farm workers, can have very | | | | root problems of Africa are tackled with courage and |
| negative outcomes in terms of investment, | | | | integrity Mugabe and his type of "reform" will prevail. |