adminSuitable Kajau
Upon attainment of Independence on 18 April 1980, Zimbabwe tumbled onto a racially skewed agricultural land ownership structure where the minority white large-scale commercial farmers, constituting less than 1 percent of the national population occupied 45 percent of prime agricultural land. 75 percent of this was in the high rainfall and most productive areas of Zimbabwe.
As we mark the 35th independence celebrations on Saturday, 18 April 2015 of our beloved Zimbabwe, it is only prudent to reflect how President Robert Mugabe advocated for equitable land distribution, a first of its kind in the continent.
The status quo could not be left unchallenged as 60 percent of this large-scale commercial land was lying idle while the black majority remained confined to over-crowded infertile areas which the colonial system dubbed ‘Reserves.’ This was a contentious issue which gave black nationalists the impetus to take up arms and sacrifice their lives in the war of liberation against the imperialist settlers who usurped our land without regret.
It is against this back-drop that, His Excellency President Robert Mugabe, alongside other nationalists committed their effort and dedication to break the selfish and callous system led by the tyrannical white minority administration led by the ruthless Ian Smith. Cde Mugabe remained resolute and focused on the need to ensure that blacks enjoy the fruits of their national heritage.
To satisfy this Zimbabwean dream, Cde Mugabe and his government led an expeditious and successful Land Reform Programme which was meant to empower the historically disenfranchised blacks and correct the colonial imbalances which existed unbridled for close to a century when the white man ruled Zimbabwe illegally between 1890 and 1979.
The Land Reform Programme came to transform lives and to resuscitate hopes for blacks who had stayed for decades in abject poverty under a racially discriminatory system.
Cde Mugabe’s land redistribution programme transferred the means of production from the once colonial masters to those who deserve land as their birth-right. It is an indisputable fact that land is a universal capital good which constitutes the best economic value to humanity on any part of the globe. The white men enjoyed this resource at the expense of the indigenous people.
President Mugabe made it his core business to ensure the fruition of the ambition to own land by liberation war fighters and all Zimbabweans, a reality. The programme involves restructuring of access to land and an overhaul of the existing farming system, institutions and structures so as to embrace blacks with equal opportunities.
This includes access to markets, credit, training and access to social, developmental and economic amenities. It seeks to re-invigorate agricultural productivity, which ultimately leads to industrial and economic empowerment as well as a macroeconomic environment which raises the living standards for the entire population.
The selfish inequitable distribution of land in Zimbabwe dates back to the days of the colonial era as spelled out in the British South Africa Company Royal Charter of 1889. The appalling legal consequence of The Order in Council was entrenched in the sovereign and the property rights in the British Queen, thus nullifying the legitimacy of pre-existing Zimbabwean traditional leadership style. Large stretches of prime land became alienated as they relegated indigenous people to small pockets of marginal and fragile communal areas which could not sustain their livelihoods.
The colonial Land Apportionment Act of 1930 set aside 51 percent of land for a few thousand white settlers and prohibited the indigenous people from owning and occupying lands in white commercial farming areas. The African Purchase Areas were created between the indigenous reserve areas and the commercial white settlers’ areas.
The indigenous reserves, metamorphosed into Tribal Trust Lands, following the gazetting of an Act in 1965. This situation therefore, witnessed the creation of three separate categories of land classification in Zimbabwe namely: the Communal Areas, Small Scale Commercial and Large Scale Commercial Areas. The direct negative impact of the Land Apportionment Act was the expropriation of traditional ancestral land which some families had held for generations.
Commercial farming was a preserve for families of European descent only. They got title deeds to land. Ian Smith’s colonial and Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) government policies favoured whites while relegating blacks’ rights to the background. Rural road network programmes serviced European farming areas. By 1979, the white Zimbabweans made up a paltry 5 percent of the population, and counting only 4500 farmers who owned 70 percent of the most fertile land, while the rest of the citizens were languishing in poverty, practicing subsistence farming in rocky and infertile fields which could hardly yield enough to feed their households.
The Lancaster House Agreement, which negotiated a ceasefire, paved the way for holding of elections, which ZANU-PF resoundingly won led by Cde Mugabe who became the founding first post-Independence prime minister.
The three-month long Lancaster House conference nearly failed over the critical land issue. The Lancaster House Agreement required Prime Minister Robert Mugabe’s government to wait 10 years before instituting land reform, which they complied with. The British agreed to fund land reform on a “willing buyer, willing seller” principle, meeting 50 percent of the costs of land purchase and investments on social amenities such as, water, schools and clinics in order to convert large commercial farms into viable resettlement areas for the peasantry. About 71 000 families were re-settled on 3, 5 million hectares of former white-owned land under this programme in the 80s.
In 1985, the Land Acquisition Act was drawn in the spirit of the 1979 Lancaster House “willing seller, willing buyer” clause which gave the government the first right (of refusal) to purchase excess land for redistribution to the landless. However, the act had a limited impact, mainly because the government had no adequate funds to compensate landowners. In addition, white commercial farmers mounted a vigorous opposition to the act, and because of the “willing seller, willing buyer” clause, government was powerless in the face of such resistance. The ultimate result was that, between 1980 and 1990, the government acquired merely 40 percent of the targeted 8 million hectares of land and about 71 000 people were resettled.
To accelerate the Land Reform Programme, President Mugabe’s government enacted the 1992 Land Acquisition Act which removed the “willing seller, willing buyer” clause. The act gave government the legal force to buy land compulsorily for redistribution, with a fair compensation paid for land acquired. Landowners had the right to challenge in court the price set by the acquiring authority. Opposition by landowners increased throughout the period of 1992 to 1997.
In 1997 the government gazetted 1 471 farms it intended to buy compulsorily for redistribution to landless Zimbabweans. On November 5 1997, Britain’s then Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, wrote a letter to the Zimbabwean Government denying British obligation to the land issue:
“I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe. We are a new government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests. My own origins are Irish and, as you know, we were colonised, not colonisers. We do, however, recognise the very real issues you face over land reform. We believe that land reform could be an important component of a Zimbabwean programme designed to eliminate poverty. We would be prepared to support a programme of land reform that was part of a poverty eradication strategy but not on any other basis.”
This was an inundating pronouncement by the British Government which propelled stern measure to be taken to satisfy the demands of landless indigenous people in spite of all odds.
In June 1998, the Zimbabwe Government published its “policy framework” on the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme Phase II, which stated its envisaged compulsory purchase over five years of 50 000 square kilometres from the 112 000 square kilometres owned by white commercial farmers, public corporations, churches, non-governmental organisations and multinational companies.
The Commercial Farmers Union offered to sell to the government 15 000 square kilometres for redistribution, but landowners grudgingly dragged their feet.
A social explosion ensued owing to the reluctance of the white commercial farmers to co-operate with calls for equal distribution of land. The restless and impatient Zimbabweans voluntarily marched on white-owned farmlands to demand what rightfully belonged to them.
Today a large section of the Zimbabwean society is enjoying farming production on the prime land which they have been deprived of for decades. Credit goes to the expert leadership of His Excellency President Mugabe, who faced the challenge head-on to serve the suffering masses.
He set a classic precedent case study for Africa on what it means to attain total independence for the good of his people. Other countries like South Africa are now talking of emulating Zimbabwe’s example as the success of the land reform programme can never be overshadowed by temporary minor glitches like our farmers learning the ropes to be fully competent and productive farmers.
This land reform programme gave a dawn era of economic emancipation for the Zimbabweans. Blacks have been empowered to own the means of production for them to derive benefits to enable them to sustain their livelihoods.
The land reform programme disheartened the West as their kith and kins were expelled from the land which they had stolen and exploited for almost a century unperturbed. This motivated them to impose illegal sanctions as way of fixing Zimbabweans for repossessing their birthright. Due to expert leaders of His Excellency, Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe, sanctions buster strategies were promulgated to frustrate the effort of our erstwhile enemies who had anticipated a chaotic situation which would degenerate into a possible civil strife. Their prospects were to upset the status quo so as to effect a regime change in this country. They failed dismally on this item as President Mugabe continues to champion policies which transfer the economy onto the hands of the black majority.
Meanwhile, the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act has been applied to ensure that locals gain a stake in the business entities which constitute greater part of the economic activity in this country.
Despite all disruptive measure imposed on this country by the US and the European Union, Zimbabwe remains a stable country which has also become self reliant as it can no longer rely on hand outs from the West as is the case with other African states.
As we celebrate our independence, let’s not forget where we came from and how far we have come under the tutelage of President Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
Online Reporter