Posted on 21-8-2002

Old Style Left-Right Fight In Zimbabwe
By Alan Marston

Mugabe is a veteran old-style socialist from the cold war days and it
shows. On the other hand, the right hand, there are many old-style
attitudes from those formally in charge of economics and politics in
colonial Africa. Zimbabwe is witness to the consequences of rock heads
meeting hard money.

Hard Money

The future of privately-owned commercial farming in Zimbabwe faced further
uncertainty on Monday as about 100 estate owners went to court to fight for
the right to remain on their land instead of leaving to make way for a wave
of new farmers to be settled. On 9 August 2,800 farmers were meant to leave
their land under the terms of controversial land reform laws which aim to
transfer land ownership from white farmers to underprivileged black
settlers. It also became a crime for commercial farmers to continue tending
their crops or feeding their cattle.

Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for pressure group Justice for Agriculture
(JAG) told IRIN that about 100 farmers appeared in courts around the
country on Monday to challenge the order that they stop farming. The
outcome ranged from farmers being fined and allowed to return to farming,
to farmers being told they must leave. The farmers are using a range of
technicalities including that farms still being paid off may not come under
the acquisition programme without informing the bond-holding bank - a
condition that has not always been met.

Zimbabwe's land reform programme is being pursued against the backdrop of a
food crisis affecting six million Zimbabweans - half the population.
According to JAG's website, cereal production had dropped 57 percent
compared to last year - with doubt cast over the fate of the US $330
million crop still in grading sheds - and maize production had fallen by 67
percent. Economist John Robertson told IRIN that current uncertainly
surrounding the future of farming placed the country's billion dollar tea,
coffee, sugar, flower and vegetable export markets at risk. He said that
almost 95 percent of the country's commercial farmland was affected by the
land reform programme and added that even the remaining five percent may
eventually come under the spotlight. Robertson said the full extent of the
impact on farming and the economy would only be known in a few months' time
as it became clearer which farmers would be leaving their land. With the
land reform law forcing "Section 8" farmers to down tools, crops like tea
and tobacco which need ongoing post-harvest processing, could be ruined,
losing farmers millions in income.

Banks also faced an uncertain future with the risk of farmers not making
bond repayments and this would adversely affect the country's international
credit rating. He said the government had so far not provided promised
agricultural inputs for the incoming farmers, and they could be too great a
credit risk for the already wary banks to lend them the cash they need to
get started. "The banks are currently badly exposed to debt from the
commercial farmers and the new owners (the government) won't pay. The banks
will have to write this off as bad debt which is dangerous for their long
term survival. "The economy is very involved and intricate and it will all
fall in a heap if anything goes wrong," he said.

Rock Heads

The current crisis is one of drought, yet the international press vilifies
the government for intentionally starving Zimbabwean citizens. The
government says the natural disaster is being used to focus attention on a
regime the West would rather see gone.

The aging President Mugabe recently rejected food aid from the United
States, so Western observers criticized him for irrationally subjecting his
people to further suffering. Astute journalists have linked this rejection
of food aid to a thread of thought that is often invoked when discussing
globalization: national sovereignty.

International criticism of Mugabe was focused during the Zimbabwean
Parliamentary elections of 2000. The government promised that war veterans
would get land after Independence in 1980. The vets finally started
reclaiming white farms on their own prior to the parliamentary elections.
The Zimbabwean government quickly implemented a fast track land reform
program to reclaim land and grant it to those who apply for agricultural land.

The white landowners vehemently oppose the reclamation, with violence
occurring on both sides. Their appeals to the international community
emphasize the brutality of the Mugabe regime and inexperience of black
farmers. The Zimbabwean government has publicly declared white farm owners
can retain their farms if they go through the land application process like
everyone else. Additionally the government has legislated a process for
making sure that the commercial farms remain productive.

The Caught In The Middle

Divisive politics hurts everybody, but it is particularly destructive for
the great majority who are not rock heads or hard money. Land resettlement
has grabbed international attention, but does that mean the `international
attention', including a sustained attack from Helen Clark here in NZ, is
alright? I don't think so, which does not mean taking the side of Mugabe.
The rhetoric of the controversy surrounds democracy and economic stability,
but the reality of the situation is the livelihood of displaced, diseased,
starved and super-exploited Africans. Who speaks for them?