by Dumisani Khumalo, Zimbabwe, December 1997
THEME = SOCIAL CONDIT.
In November 1997, hundreds of disgruntled demonstrators took to the streets of Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, in protest against the government's land issue. These were ex- combatants who had fought for independence, plus their families and friends; and also families awaiting the government's promises for resettlement on land reclaimed from mostly white farmers, to be fulfilled
The Government had promised to award the ex-combatants with Z$50,000, and a monthly pension of Z$2,000. Payments were supposed to have started by 15 November 1997. These unkept promises also brought the issue of land resettlement once again to the fore.
For the past 17 years, the government has been threatening to acquire land forcibly from mainly white large-scale commercial farmers, for the resettlement of millions of landless Zimbabweans. The government's latest pronouncements on this issue are not to be dismissed as the usual rhetoric. The British Government, which originally assigned these farms to white settlers, has refused to compensate the ousted commercial farmers, but asked the Zimbabwean government to have more dialogue with the people concerned.
What's happening now is that both ex-freedom fighters and landless peasants are getting restless over the land issue, and with all the present uncertainties, inflation is escalating. In his meeting with the former combatants in August 1997, President Mugabe assured them that they would get 20 percent of all acquired land, and during his recent nationwide tour, he also said that 1997 would be the final year for acquiring land, in order to redress the land imbalance once and for all.
The President has his own personal interests at heart as he has acquired land for himself in his rural Zuimba area. The president of the War Veterans Association is also accused of having signed gratuity forms to benefit his father and brother. So what price national interests?
"We are going to take the land and we are not going to pay for the soil. That is our set policy. Our land was never bought and there is no way we could buy back our land", says Mugabe.
1997 was a year of reckoning for Mugabe, and the government now realises that it is high time to do something about the land issue, yet lacks the necessary financial means to help resettle the thousands of homeless families and pay for land development.
It should be noted that the government has already taken more than 100 farms, some of them being leased to ministers. There are also 25 other farms taken by the government, covering over 42,400 hectares, but there's no money to develop the land, so people can't yet be moved onto the land. The Local Government and Housing Minister has stated: "I cannot say how long we will take to resettle people on the farms. It all depends on the availability of resources"
What's been happening? It's clear that financial resources are being misused, and that's a thorny situation between the government and the people.
In 1980, acquired land of about 3.5 million hectares, was resettled by 70,000 families. But this was a disaster due to lack of the necessary infrastructures. Now, there's about 92,000 families still waiting to be resettled, and the government needs an enormous amount of money over the next ten years for this project.
The land problem is a serious one, as unrest is occurring in parts of the country. With the discovery of weapons' caches in parts of the country, it's clear that former fighters have been amassing them...for what? At the same time, the army has been losing weapons, admittedly stolen, to an ever-increasing number of armed robbers.
But will the land given to former fighters and landless families be used profitably? That's what Zimbabwe's economists are worrying about.
END
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