Zimbabwe -- Farm workers left destitute

Zimbabwe Standard ^ | June 23, 2002 | Kumbirai Mafunda

[Clive]

WHILE President Mugabe's Zanu PF regime lauds itself for liberating thousands of Zimbabweans from poverty by providing them with land under the controversial fast-track land reform programme, it has emerged that a greater number of the displaced farm workers are now wallowing in poverty.

The sole representative body of the country's agricultural workers, the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (Gapwuz) said affected workers could be divided into two categories: Those stuck at invaded commercial farmers, and those who had ventured into informal activities, such as gold panning in Mashonaland West and Central.

Gapwuz grassroots coordinator, Gift Muti, told Standard Business: "Other farm workers joined those at Porta Farm as squatters, but this is not a straight-forward way of living. Although others have engaged in the buying and selling of goods, others are engaging in theft, poaching and illegal fishing which is outside the law."

To alleviate the misery and the reported cases of malnutrition, he said the worker's body had embarked on a food relief programme to rescue farm workers and their families.

"We are giving out mealie meal, matemba and cooking oil. We have also managed to pay school fees for children at Wadzanai Primary School in Shamva and we are assisting aged workers who were our members for a long time by giving them money to travel to their homes."

Although government gazetted a law which enables it to set up an Agricultural Employees Compensation Committee to determine benefits and entitlements for farm workers affected by its resettlement programme, Muti said no workers had been paid out as commercial farmers are yet to be compensated by government. He lashed out at the government for failing to come up with a comprehensive land reform programme.

"Government's response is not clear on the future of farm workers. They are saying workers are going to be employed by new farm owners, but the reality is that displaced farm workers are in a dilemma," said Muti.

Godfrey Magaramombe, the director of Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ) agreed with Muti. "It is still on the drawing board. Nothing has taken place. It is taking too long and workers are stranded. If people are displaced it will be hard to track them," said Magaramombe.

Muti said newly resettled farmers were unable to employ those previously catered for by commercial farmers. "They are underpaying them, while others are even failing to pay them," he said.

A research carried out by Gapwuz indicates that farm workers are not benefiting from the land grab exercise. An average of five former farm workers, are said to have benefited from every 10 designated commercial farms.

Gapwuz and the Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe deplored health standards at informal settlements which have mushroomed in the peri-urban areas. "Farmers used to employ farm health workers who used to provide health services and assist children at creches, but the health workers have been made redundant.

Our survey on farms around towns found that the displacements have increased prostitution and hence the cases of HIV and Aids," said Muti.

FCTZ which is currently feeding about 15,000 children affected by the displacements and providing shelter to farm workers, concurred with Muti on the matter of increased prostitution. "Obviously others are engaging in commercial sex activities and we have received reports of high infant mortality rates and cases of tuberculosis," Magaramombe said.

As the reality of the government's warped land policy strikes the core of society, another social ill has manifested itself in the form of child labour. In Bindura children are reportedly said to be hunting mice and working on settlers' land for a pittance.

Ian Kay, a commercial farmer who was chased away from his Chipesa farm in Marondera together with his 120 workers, said although some of his workers had managed to get shelter from friends and relatives, the prevailing economic difficulties were straining their upkeep. "Because of prevailing hardships, they can't stay long with extended families. They can only stay for a short period and then wander around from place to place," said Kay.

He said Zimbabwean farmers were keen to carry on with farming in spite of the situation. "Right now there is tobacco waiting to be graded at my farm, but settlers on the ground are refusing to let us do our job."

[Clive]

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[Congressman Billybob]

What we are seeing is a man-made famine that will kill millions, like the one that occurred in the former Soviet Union when it herded people into "collective farms" and starved the Kulaks. Only in Zimbabwe, the REAL farmers will escape with their lives, and it is the people that they used to feed who will starve.

Today, as in the USSR, the cause is a brutal dictator who is a marxist, has no clue about the market economy that used to make Zimbabwe -- a nation blessed in natural resources -- a net exporter of food. The only cure is to shoot the dictator, and put Zimbabwe back in the hands of people not intent on murder and theft, who do have a clue about market economies.

And even if that occurs today, it will take that nation at least a generation to recover from its President-for-Life, Robert Magabe. I don't think I have missed anything.

Congressman Billybob

Click for latest: "This Column Is About Nothing."

[xJones]

The only cure is to shoot the dictator, and put Zimbabwe back in the hands of people not intent on murder and theft, who do have a clue about market economies.

Mugabe has to go, or Zimbabwe does.