A Land Reform Plan Falters in Zimbabwe - "....The government must look after us."

KADOMA, Zimbabwe - The ragged farmers shout and whistle as the oxen trudge through the drizzle, dragging a rusty plow through sodden fields. Most passing motorists splash by without a second glance.

The withered men look like ordinary peasant farmers. But they have no fertilizer, no irrigation, few seeds and little hope that their crops will flourish in this season of erratic rains.

They are the beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's agricultural revolution.

Over the past two years, the government has redistributed nearly all of the country's white-owned farmland to about 300,000 poor black families and 50,000 aspiring black commercial farmers. Of the 4,500 white commercial farmers who once powered the economy by producing tobacco and wheat, about 600 are still trying to farm, mostly on smaller holdings.

Mr. Mugabe, who has led this country since white rule ended in 1980, has hailed the sweeping change as the fulfillment of the black struggle for liberation in Zimbabwe. Many Africans praise him for undoing the legacy of British colonialism, which left a tiny white minority - less than 1 percent of the population - with more than half of the country's fertile land.

But the government's chaotic and violent seizure of white-owned farms has come at a price. The economy is collapsing. The land program, coupled with severe drought, has left half the population in need of emergency food. And so far, Mr. Mugabe has failed to transform the agricultural sector into a viable system that can feed the nation and drive the economy.

Vast stretches of previously productive farmland are no longer in use because about half of the aspiring black commercial farmers have failed to take up their allotted farms since August, when most white farmers were told to leave.

The government, which seized the farms without compensation, still lacks title to most of the land. Many prospective black farmers are reluctant to occupy farms without title deeds because it is nearly impossible to get loans without them.

Meanwhile, thousands of impoverished, resettled farmers are struggling to survive without seed, fertilizer, irrigation and plowing assistance, basic services that the government has promised. The United Nations says that more than half of the government's tractor fleet - which was meant to plow fields for the poor - is out of service because of shortages of spare parts and fuel.

Officials are so short of seed and fertilizer that many small farmers are sitting idle on plots of land they cannot plant. In Manicaland Province, only about 10 percent of resettled farmers have seed and 17 percent have fertilizer. When seeds are available, the government often provides unsuitable varieties.

"In most cases, the maize seed supplied is not suitable for the areas in which they have been distributed," the United Nations said in a recent report. Some newly resettled farmers are also going hungry as the country's food shortages worsen. Aid agencies report that farmers in the district of Gwanda have gone without food assistance from the government for three months. Zimbabwe, once one of Africa's most prosperous nations, is now a country of hungry people.

Much of the trouble stems from the haste in which the government tried to distribute land. In a bid to woo disillusioned black voters, officials scrambled to parcel out land to as many people as possible before the presidential election this year. They did so without much planning or coordination.

Government officials say problems are inevitable in any large land redistribution program, particularly at a time of severe drought, and they promise to set things right. They are already warning would-be black commercial farmers that they will lose their land if they do not occupy their farms.

Officials say they are also stepping up efforts to find inexpensive seed and fertilizer for new farmers.

"We took it for granted that the supplies would be adequate," Mr. Mugabe said this month in an interview with the state-controlled newspaper, The Herald. "It then proved that we were mistaken," he said. "Seed is short, fertilizer is short and tillage is inadequate. We are working on that."

Officials say the long-term benefits of eliminating racial inequities in the economy outweigh any initial problems, no matter how large. Mr. Mugabe has made it clear that changing course is out of the question.

"We are at a stage where things are irreversible, and we are happy for it," Mr. Mugabe said in the Herald interview. "For us, the most valuable resource and source of our wealth is our land."

During the colonial era, British settlers stole the country's best land and forced blacks to move to stony, arid communal areas. Mr. Mugabe, who helped lead the struggle against white rule, has repeatedly promised to return the land to blacks over the past two decades. In the beginning, the British government helped finance Mr. Mugabe's land program in an open acknowledgment of colonial misdeeds. After white rule ended in 1980, the British paid for the purchase of land to resettle thousands of black families.

The British ended their support after complaints of corruption and cronyism in the land program began to emerge in the 1990's. In 1998, Western donors agreed yet again on a plan to finance land reform, but that plan collapsed.

In recent years, Western governments have withdrawn all financial aid, aside from food, from Zimbabwe to protest the land seizures and the attacks on the political opposition.

Several white farmers and dozens of black farm workers have been killed by government-backed militants, while thousands of other black farm workers have been evicted and left homeless. The government has also been criticized for giving prime land to prominent officials and political allies.

Officials here continue to insist that blacks will benefit from land reform in the long term, even though they lack adequate financing. Research from Zimbabwe's early experiments with land redistribution shows that resettled people were typically better off several years after they had been given land, even when they had not received any government support.

"These early problems are inevitable," said Dan Zvobgo, a local official who oversees land reform in the district of Makonde. "It's only a question of time before they are all resolved."

But whether this hasty and poorly coordinated effort will succeed in the long term is hard to judge. Zimbabwe has never attempted such a large land redistribution before. Between 1980 and 1998, about 71,000 families were resettled, officials say.

This time, the government resettled four times as many households in just two years as officials raced to persuade disillusioned black voters to support Mr. Mugabe and his party in national elections.

"It's massive by Zimbabwean historical standards and by international standards," said Rogier van den Brink, a land expert at the World Bank who worked in Zimbabwe until recently.

"A program of this size would need much, much more resources to make it work," Mr. van den Brink said. "To do this type of land reform program in the midst of a macroeconomic crisis is extremely difficult, if not impossible."

But it is happening. Thousands of white farmers have already packed their bags. Some have moved to the cities to wait for the situation to improve. Others have left the country altogether, looking for a new start in South Africa, Mozambique, Britain and Australia.

"Some people are still waiting for some sort of respite, but a lot of people are leaving now," said Colin Cloete, the president of the Commercial Farmers' Union, which once represented 4,500 white farmers. "Many have decided they never will farm again."

In early December, a group of impoverished black farmers asked the authorities to allow a white farmer to stay on his land because he was providing them with water and helping them to plow their fields. Their request was denied. The white farmer was forced to leave and the black farmers were forced to consider their futures.

"I wish to plant maize, ground nuts and cotton, but I don't have the seeds," said Mr. Machekano, who was wearing a President Mugabe T-shirt. "The seeds are not coming in time, and soon the season will be over."

Tane Zingwa, an old man with four oxen, also complained that assistance has been slow in coming. He has no fertilizer and few seeds. Soon, he will have no water. Still, he continues to put his faith in the government.

"What will happen to us?" Mr. Zingwa said. "I don't know. It's up to the government. The government put us here. The government must look after us."

Zimbabwe -- Nothing but destruction to show for land grab***The drought was, in the scheme of things, a sideshow, as Zimbabwe has weathered worse before. But what of the doughty, overcrowded communal farmers who are capable of producing 800,000 tons of maize in a year? The communal farmers are weakened by inflation, which will hit 200% by year end, and by shortages of inputs. They are also hungry, and their families are diminished by HIV AIDS. They have no access to dams or irrigation, and prospects for decent rain this season, are dim.

Mugabe's new farmers in Mashonaland West are largely businessmen or politicians who bark orders down the phone to managers from their suburban homes in the city. In the Mazowe Valley last week, west of Harare, is first lady Grace Mugabe's farm, which she wrenched from a frightened old couple. She is growing a few hectares of maize, government tractors were ploughing for her last weekend at a dirt cheap price, and Mugabe's sister, Sabina, is trying her hand at seed maize on one of several farms she has taken. But none of them will in the foreseeable future produce enough food, or enough foreign currency to import what was grown before.***

Zimbabwe's Mugabe Tells the World: Leave Us Alone - Britain "the enemy" *** CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (Reuters) - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe called on Western powers to leave his embattled government alone Friday, warning he would respond to pressure by ratcheting up hostility toward whites in the country. Opening the annual conference of his ruling ZANU-PF party, the 78-year-old Mugabe vowed to fight on -- particularly against former colonial power Britain, which he said had become "the enemy" under Prime Minister Tony. "Leave us alone to run our affairs," Mugabe said. "Leave us alone to run our lives. We don't interfere in the affairs of Britain and no one should interfere in our own affairs." If Britain's allies want to make Zimbabwe their own issue, Mugabe said, "we will recognize them as enemies like we recognize Britain, under Mr. Blair, as an enemy of Zimbabwe. "The more they work against us, the more they express their hostility against us, the more negative we shall become to their kith and kin here." ***

Mugabe's men drown cattle as thousands go hungry*** Zimbabwe's commercial farmers have fallen victim to a renewed campaign of mindless violence with the killing of hundreds of cattle by workers egged on by supporters of President Robert Mugabe. On one farm several hundred head of cattle were recently driven into a dam to drown while others were penned into paddocks, in searing heat, to starve to death. Cattle were sent to their excruciating end by a group of about hysterical 20 farm workers, encouraged by government supporters, at Forrester Estates, in the Mvurwi district about 60 miles north-east of Harare. "It was terrible," said Fanie Ferreira, 43, who recently quit as a sub-manager on the estate. "The noise they made was . . . you can't describe it. It was frightening.***

Mugabe's wife selects her farm and orders the owners to leave*** Wayne Bvudzijena, a police spokesman, said 193 people had been apprehended since the latest purge of white farmers began, but he could not say how many remained in prison last night. One of those apparently detained was Elaine Graham, daughter of the British peer, Lord Forrester, who was allowed to breast-feed her month-old baby in the cells. Her husband, Ian, was also arrested. The Forrester family had large agricultural estates in Zimbabwe.

The country-wide swoop on whites has irreparably damaged Zimbabwe's commercial agriculture at a time when half the population is on the brink of starvation. Several hundred farmers, particularly in the provinces where Mr Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party is strong, have fled their homes and businesses, most of them for ever. While an unknown number of white farmers have been forced to squat with friends and family, the couple allegedly evicted by Mrs Mugabe, have been housed temporarily in an apartment in Harare, before they leave to join their daughter in Cape Town.

The Matthews' eviction notice expired 10 days ago. A source said that Mr Matthews, 78, and his wife, 74, were told to appeal against their eviction to the district administrator. They discovered, however, that he had been part of Mrs Mugabe's entourage when she gave orders that workers and other residents on the property should pack their bags. The farm, which is almost 2,500 acres, has only 400 arable acres, and has been idle for 18 months since Mr Mugabe's militia arrived and prevented the Matthews from growing any crops. Mrs Mugabe is notorious for her profligate ways and a few years ago had a house built for her which was nicknamed Graceland.***

Electronic Telegraph - Key figures Biographies of key Zimbabwean politicians and rebel leaders who have played a major role in shaping the modern state of Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe -- Reign of terror***This was not what people thought would happen when Robert Mugabe was elected leader of Zimbabwe in 1980. After four years of war against Ian Smith's white minority rule, the former guerrilla was lauded at his state inauguration as a hero of the black liberation movement. More than two decades later, the former breadbasket of Africa, was on its knees. The president had decided to preside over the collapse of the economy, and the torture and starvation of his people, while he and his second wife Grace were helicoptered between their various mansions around the country. How did he manage to wreck Zimbabwe so quickly, and why? By falling prey to a common addiction among African dictators: greed. In 1999, he sent thousands of troops into Congo to plunder minerals and diamonds on behalf of his ruling elite. The troops were not paid. The drain on the country's resources was huge.The people grew restless.

Fearing disaster in the March elections, Mugabe decided to invoke memories of the revolution and put the blame on wealthy white farmers, who employed hundreds of thousands working the land. Through his Stasi-trained secret police, Mugabe sent in paid thugs to scare the farmers off their land. A handful were killed; hundreds fled. Foreign investment dried up, the economy collapsed, and unemployment and malnutrition soared. Mugabe 'won' the elections by a narrow majority. People voted for him for one reason: they might die if they refused to. Meanwhile, nine months later, he continues to torture and starve a terrified population, and the world continues to ignore Zimbabwe's cry for freedom.***

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Daily Reports Rhodesia

Rhetoric of blame is now a white lie (AFRICA, HEAL THYSELF)
The Daily Telegraph ^ | September 3, 2002 | Tim Butcher
"I remember Africa in the 1960s, everyone was filled with high expectations after independence. Forty years on, Africa is a series of kleptocracies, many worse off than they were under colonial rule. Almost all of the common people in relative worse shape to the rest of the world than they were before independence. Africans after 40 years have no one to blame but their own leadership for their problems. The leaders want to deflect blame to the West. The West's not buying it anymore..."

CIA -- The World Factbook -- Zimbabwe

First it was Rhodesia then SA now America paying the price of silence.

-A Capsule History of Southern Africa--

Parallels between Apartheid SA & USA today

South African Crime Report

ZWNEWS.com - linking the world to Zimbabwe
... Books & Videos. Degrees in Violence: Robert Mugabe and the Struggle for Power
In Zimbabwe This book tells the story of Zimbabwe from the hopeful era of ...

MPR Books - Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African ...

Title: "Cry, the Beloved Country" - Topics: World/South Africa

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FYI, I wrote this a while back:

I don't know what will happen in southern Africa beyond a general breakdown into chaos & anarchy... the old bugbear was the Soviets gaining control of the tip & choking our fleet's movements, coupled with control of the mineral wealth. Now it look like Quaddaffi is angling to take over Rhodesia and perhaps spread to South Africa.

At this point, we are 20 years too late, but we can at least bear witness to the debacle.

Bear in mind I am a partisan- I supported ( with reluctance ) the old white-minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa, because I knew the Communists and their puppets- including proxies like Cuba- were angling for control of southern Africa.

One big problem we have is our media. They have tried to portray the situation in southern Africa as a clone of our own civil-rights struggles when in fact just the opposite was true. Africa is degenerating into chaos and anarchy under the guise of "liberation" and "one man, one vote." All while the media here turns a blind eye to what is really happening.

What I used to tell people was that while Apartheid was an onerous, offensive system, I would prefer being a black South African under Apartheid to being a person of any color under the old Soviet system- and I still believe those words to be true and correct. Given time, the old South African government would have worked out its problems- but it was not allowed to do so.

Today, we are seeing the results of this folly in Zimbabwe- or rather, we see what tiny bits the web and small elements of talk radio cover.

The whole story of contemporary Africa is a sad tale of tribalism, class warfare, kleptocracy, and massive corruption- and one the media here "won't even talk about" because it does not fit within their template of acceptable ideas.

I would also add, that both the press and entertainment arms of the media encouraged and supported the toppling of the old governments, i. e., they were in collusion, and complicit in the fall. Now that things have worked out at variance with their idealistic fantasies, they simply "don't talk about it..."

"Why do you keep posting this stuff? Nobody cares about Africa, anyway..."

Clive, Cincinatus's Wife, blam, myself, and a few others get asked that occasionally- we are among the keepers of the "AfricaWatch" columns, and we continue to post articles about what I believe will prove to be one of the great, tragic stories of the new century.

The mainstream press never publishes more than one Africa story a day, and it's usually some fluff or dodge around how grim the situation is over there.

But the truth is archived here on Free Republic, and I maintain that one day, when things over there are too awful to be ignored any longer, those who have eyes to see will read the stories here, and be appalled at the silence.

That is all...

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