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Roundup: Zimbabwe Speeds up Land Reform
Responding to strong demands from a majority of its population who have yearned to own land over the past 20 years since independence, the Zimbabwean government has embarked on a "fast track" land reform and redistribution program.
A total of 3,041 white-owned commercial farms have been identified to resettle 2 million landless blacks in a speeded-up land redistribution process in three months time. Among these, 1,952 farms have been published for immediate distribution.
The government sees the latest program as the final move to resolve land imbalances spanning over 100 years, following the occupation of this southern African country by British colonialists who used the Lippert Concession of 1889 to acquire land rights from native Zimbabweans.
Under the act, white settlers acquired vast tracts of fertile land in Zimbabwe and drove blacks into unproductive "native reserves", which are now called communal areas. This resulted in 4,500 white commercial farmers owning 70 percent of Zimbabwe's most productive land, while the majority of the 12.5 million Zimbabweans crammed on unproductive land.
During independence talks in 1979, the issue of land was highlighted until it was agreed that the new Zimbabwean government would acquire land on a "willing seller, willing buyer" principle for the first 10 years. The Land Acquisition Act of 1985 for the first time gave the government the right to buy large-scale commercial farms on which blacks would be resettled. However, the program was under-funded and had very limited success.
It was followed by the Land Acquisition Act of 1992, under which the government set out to compulsorily buy 5 million hectares of land to resettle blacks.
Largely due to financial constraints and with the white commercial farmers demanding high prices under "the willing buyer, willing seller" scheme, the government only managed to resettle 71,000 families out of a targeted 162,000 between 1980 and 1997, in the first phase of resettlement, for which the British government spent 40 million British pounds.
The second phase started in the 1997/98 financial year, with the government intending to acquire nearly 5 million hectares of the 12 million hectares held by whites for resettlement.
Furious at the snailing pace of the land redistribution program, thousands of veterans of the country's 1970's independence war occupied some 1,500 white owned farms since February this year, in an effort to re-claim their right to land that was taken away from their ancestors, or at least to force the government to speed up the process. In response, the Zimbabwean parliament amended the Constitution in April this year to allow the government to compulsorily acquire white farms for resettlement without payment for land.
But the move met strong protest from the donor community. Britain, the United States, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank suspended their aid to Zimbabwe immediately. The British government argued that it could only fund the land reform program provided it benefits the rural poor rather than the undeserving -- including high ranking government officials who are said to have benefited from the program.
The African community, however, have expressed their support to Zimbabwe's land reform. The Organization of African Union said in a resolution passed by its Council of Ministers in Lome, Togo last month that the land issue is central to the long-term stability and development of Zimbabwe. The Southern African Development Community has also come out in full support of the program, which they say will solve the age-old land imbalances in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe's economy is mainly agricultural-based, with the industry contributing about 60 percent to the economy.
Although the government has been warned that the hastened land resettlement program might worsen the country's already poor economic performance, Zimbabwe's Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement Minister Joseph Made said the new program would turn out to be a success. He told the parliament that of the 5 million hectares that the government intends to acquire, only 2.1 million hectares is suitable for cropping, while the other 2.9 million hectares is for livestock production.
Agricultural production would not go down as a result of the fast track resettlement scheme, Made said, noting that 75 percent of the arable land under white ownership is currently being under-utilized, and would be put to productive use by the resettled blacks.
According to the minister, the government is working with the private sector and non-government organizations to come up with a policy that would successfully resettle people on 5 million hectares before the onset of the rainy season in December this year.
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