A sober interrogation and an intellectual conversation focused on Zimbabwe’s agrarian reform, devoid of partisan emotion, incendiary sloganeering, and ideological vitriol, is now necessary for the formulation of a people driven land reform programme. A comprehensive independent land audit conducted by a civic commission, whose findings are to be made public, must be a precursor to this endevour.

As much as the government published the lists of all farms gazetted for acquisition, in the name of transparency and political fair play Zimbabweans deserve to know who the recipients and beneficiaries of all the seized land are.

Sustainable economic growth can only be attained with the permanent inclusion of Zimbabwe’s communal farmers into the mainstream economy. The peculiarity of our history is such that most commercial farmers were white. It is time to recognise that fact and realise that the land issue is both an economic and political imperative, an issue that supersedes one’s race or ethnicity.

In 1888, white colonists under the auspices of the British South Africa Company, led by Cecil Rhodes, expropriated the country’s best agricultural lands and began colonial rule.
The solution to correcting this colonial imbalance, decongesting communal areas, and empowering previously disadvantaged indigenous citizens through agriculture, while maintaining productivity is attainable.

White farmers wanting to sell land were legally obliged to offer it to the state first. If the state did not want the land, it would issue a “no present interest” certificate (valid for one year), which then enabled the seller to dispose of the land on the private market. Throughout the 1980’s there was a steady flood of land available to the Government of Zimbabwe. The land acquired included that abandoned by white farmers during the war, as well as land sold willingly by some landowners.

Senior members of ZANU (PF) under the VIP Farm Scheme acquired farms by taking advantage of the state’s “no present interest”. Farm land totalling over a million hectares was transferred and the VIP Farm Scheme also leased state land acquired under the resettlement programme to ZANU (PF) officials and government ministers—none of these farms are in production today.

In 1981, the Government of Zimbabwe passed the Communal Land Act, which changed the name of the Tribal Trust Lands to Communal Areas and transferred authority from the traditional leaders to the local authorities. The 1992 Land Acquisition Act was enacted to speed up the land reform process by removing the “willing seller, willing buyer” clause, limiting the size of farms and introducing a land tax (although the tax was never implemented.) The land protection clauses of the Lancaster House Agreement expired in 1990.
As part of the Lancaster House Agreement signed in London in 1979, a land-reform program was established, under which land was to be purchased from white farmers for redistribution to landless peasants on a “willing seller, willing buyer” basis. Australia, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the U.S. and the World Bank signed on to provide funds for this program, as well as funds for development. Total funds pledged for both amounted to $1.9 billion, but the land redistribution program was so grossly mismanaged that most countries withdrew their financial support in 1992.

In the first phase of the Land Reform Programme (1980-85) the Government of Zimbabwe announced its intention to resettle 162 000 families on 10.5 million hectares of land within five years. By 1986, 3.4 million hectares had been acquired at a cost of £ 80 million, reducing the amount of land under white ownership to 29 percent.

By 1996, the United Kingdom had contributed in terms of aid to Zimbabwe £500 million pounds since Independence. Of this total, £47 million was targeted for land reform, and approximately £100 million was budgetary support which should have been used for land reform. What happened to all those funds? The UK Land Resettlement Grant closed down with £3 million still unspent following the discovery of massive corruption and the misuse of land resettlement funds.

The following criterion constitutes the noble Government of Zimbabwe parameters by which all land was to be acquired:

i) Derelict land;
ii) Under-utilised land;
iii) Land owned by absentee landlords;
iv) Land from farmers with more than one farm or with oversized farms, and
v) Land adjacent to communal areas. (However, if this was the only farm of the farmer’s possession and if the farmer wanted to continue farming, he would be offered another farm).

These principles were discarded before implementation. The day after ZANU (PF) lost the constitutional referendum, violent farm invasions commenced.

The government had further stipulated maximum farm sizes for each agro-ecological region as follows:

Region    Small-Scale (ha) Medium-Scale (ha) Large-Scale (ha)
I                              20                   100                              250
IIa                           30                   200                              350
IIb                          40                    250                              400
III                           60                    300                              500
IV                           120                  700                           1 500
V                            240              1 000                           2 000

Today senior members of ZANU (PF) own multiple farms and are absentee landlords; most of these properties are underutilised—hence Zimbabwe’s perennial food shortages.

By 1997, the end of phase one of the land reform and resettlement program, the government had resettled 71 000 families (out of a targeted 162 000) on almost 3.5 million hectares of land. Close to 400 black political acolytes leased 400 000 hectares of state land and about 350 black people had bought their farms.

In November 2002, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said the land-grab was over. He said in total the government had seized 12 million hectares of land from white farmers. In January 2006, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made said Zimbabwe was considering legislation that would compel commercial banks to finance blacks who had been allocated formerly white-owned farmland in the land reforms. Made threatened local banks with withdrawal of their banking licenses, should they fail to lend a substantial portion of their income to these land occupiers.

The current fast track land reform programme in Zimbabwe is chaotic and was fashioned as a political survival stratagem by ZANU (PF) designed to appease a restive peasantry and to punish perceived enemies. Gradualist land tenure reform that pays special attention to the legal status and economic activities of women must also avoid arbitrary evictions of the landless and ensure landholders invest in the land. Leaving things the way they are is not a viable option, agrarian reform is an urgent national endevour.

2010 Proposed agrarian reform roadmap:
1. All land must be converted into 50 year leaseholds.
2. Each commercial farmer must be allocated a group of communal farmers whom the farmer assists with agronomic advice and expertise.
3. The farmers pay no corporate tax for the duration of the lease once the farmer has built a school, clinic and adequate housing on their farm or collective community.
4. A fund, managed by the Revenue Authority, comprising of all civic stakeholders is inaugurated with the purpose of financing smallholder farmer development.
5. Young farmers are attached to farmers as understudies and included in tenant farming schemes run by the respective Farmers Associations.
6. Each Farmers Association is allocated additional state land under trust which is eventually resurveyed and apportioned to new qualified farmers.

Phil Matibe – www.madhingabucketboy.com