Land in Zimbabwe:Past Mistakes, Future Prospects

• Inflation: a general and progressive increase in prices; in inflation everything gets more valuable except money. Inflation means that your money won’t buy as much today as you could yesterday. A small amount of inflation is generally viewed as having a positive effect on the economy. One reason is that it is difficult to renegotiate some prices downwards (i.e.wages), so that with generally increasing prices it is easier for relative prices to adjust.

• Hyperinflation: a condition in which prices increase rapidly as a currency loses its value. The main cause of hyperinflation is a massive and rapid increase in the amount of money produced, which is not supported by growth in the output of goods and services. Zimbabwe HyperInflation: 32% in 1998, to an official estimated high of 11,200,000,000% in August 2008.

• According to the IMF - civil service is bloated, others state that prices have increased and wages have stayed stagnent, government spending is out of control, mismanagement and corruption, loss of commercial farming do to land issues, and President Mugabe blames foreign governments, sanctions, and alleged sabotage

Understanding the Economics

What decisions are our elected officials required to make? Where does the government get money?

Where are dollars allocated?What strategies does the government implement during times of economic slow

downs?During times of economic prosperity what does the government do with funds?

Educationhttp://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2009/09/22/inside.africa.zim.education.bk.c.cnn.html

Infrastructurehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2009/feb/26/zimbabwe-cholera

Case: The Impact of Colonialism in Zimbabwe

“It was about land in the beginning; it was about land during the struggle; it has

remained about land today. The land issue in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe is not ancient history. It

is modern history.”

Sir Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal Secretary-General of the Commonwealth 1975 – 1990

Definitions• Commercial Farming: Farming for a profit, where food is produced by advanced

technological means for sale in the local, national and international market.

• Communal Farming: Areas where communal farmers reside and practice agriculture for subsistence purposes. Sometimes they produce excess crops and livestock products for sale.

• Royal Charter: Were used to create cities (ie, localities with recognised legal rights and privileges). In England They were signed by the King/Queen.

Brief History of Region• The Scramble for Africa, was a

process of invasion, attack, occupation and joining of sovereign African territory to European countries (1880s and 1914).

• The British South Africa Company (BSAC) was created by Cecil Rhodes and received a royal charter in 1889.

• Cecil John Rhodes was the founder of the state of Rhodesia, which was named after him. After independence, Rhodesia became Northern and Southern Rhodesia, later renamed Zambia and Zimbabwe.

• He was an English born businessman and politician in South Africa. He was the founder of the De Beers diamond company

1853-1902

• An believer in colonialism• The BSAC was empowered

to trade with African rulers; to form banks; to own & distribute land, and raise a police force

• In return, the BSAC agreed to develop the territory; to respect existing African laws; to allow free trade within its territory and to respect all religions.

• However, Rhodes and the white settlers worked on acquiring more mineral rights, more land, establishing their own governments, and introducing laws with little concern for African law.

Lancaster House Agreement - The UK incorporated

Southern Rhodesia into the British Empire from the BSAC in 1923.

- The Lancaster House agreement (Dec1979) brought independence to this region in April 1980. Main issue at the independance meetings was land. Justice on LAND was denied at Lancaster House is felt strongly today, both in Zimbabwe and throughout southern Africa.

Lancaster House Agreements Zimbabwa Beliefs

Recently there has been a growing belief among Zimbabweans that the British and U.S. made promises about land transfer which were later betrayed. These promises included specific amounts to buy out white Zimbabwean land-owners and set up black Zimbabweans as farmers

Britain and American BeliefsBritish and American versions of events maintain that no promises were made other than to provide funding for agricultural development and land reform. These, they say, were fulfilled until Mugabe’s government began to pursue land seizures without compensation. In response, Western donors cut off aid for land reform.

Land Ownership Issue• Zimbabwe is a geographically varied country divided into

5 Natural Regions based on rainfall. Regions I and II receive the most rainfall and are most suited to specialised and intensive farming. By contrast in regions III, IV and V rainfall is erratic and unreliable, making dry land cultivation a risky venture, with an average success rate of one good harvest in every four to five years.

• At Independence virtually all of the farms in regions I and II were owned by white commercial farmers, while the majority of the communal lands were in regions III, IV and V.

Land Regions In Zimbabwe

This is what the argument is over• The white Rhodesians, owned 70% of the land while

making up less than 1% of the population.• The Patriotic Front political party wanted the power to

redistribute land more equitably among the population• A Land Resettlement Programme was established, with

Britain as the key donor. The land was acquired along the ‘willing buyer-willing seller’ terms agreed at LH.

• Between 1980-1985 the Land Resettlement Programme was moderately successful. Land reform began to stall after 1985 and Britain gave no money to the programme after 1990. When the programme ended in 1996 71,000 families had been resettled.

Farm Seizures• The average size of a commercial farm was 1,000 hectares, average

size of a communal farm was 10 hectares. Communal farm residents did not hold title to the land, and thus could not use it as collateral for bank loans for seed or equipment.

• By 1997 pressure in Zimbabwe began to build against President Mugabe. The War Veteran Association demanded larger pensions and then, in 2000, land. President Mugabe, unable to extract provisions from Britain and desperate to remain in power allowed and even encouraged farm seizures with no compensation.

• The list of 1,600 farms to be acquired grew to over 3,000, while thousands of ZANU PF sponsored settlers began to occupy commercial farms.

• Britian got involved and reiterated that funds for land reform would be made available if conditions on transparency and respect for rule of law were met.

Consequences of Policy• 4000 large scale commercial farmers, 80 per cent of whom had bough their farms after

independence in 1980 have been invaded and their owners forced off the land. Loss of farming skills is the major consequence.

• Since 2000 overall agricultural production in volume terms had declined by about 50% by 2008.

• In July 2001 maize, maize products, wheat and wheat products were declared controlled products (Fixed Pricing). Illegal to sell to anyone other than the Grain Marketing Board.

• By September 2006 state control had led to severe price distortions: the government bought maize at a cost of Z$33,000 per tonne but sold it through the GMB at Z$6,000 per tonne, representing a 98% subsidy.

• The decline in agricultural output has led to a food supply deficit that has in turn led to increased dependence on food imports.

• In 2000 an estimated 320,000 farm workers, representing about 25% of Zimbabwe’s total work force, were employed on commercial farms. The land seizures has meant that over 200,000 farm workers and their families – an estimated 1 million people – have lost their livelihoods and their homes, as well as access to farm schools and other social amenities.

The power sharing agreement (Feb 2009) in Zimbabwe between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai has opened up a political space which

may lead to a more democratic and united Zimbabwe. The agreement includes a request for external assistance with land reform.

A Sign of Hope

Mugabee and the white African

Part1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_cXN04Jq1w&feature=relatedPart 2http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6AzDrTlB74&feature=relatedPart3http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaX6lwZ-MMQ&feature=relatedPart 4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOQb2e8VrGk&feature=relatedPart 5http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9TOXkc_z0U&feature=relatedPart 6http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfXGRoWbRTE&feature=relatedPart 7http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7xIMJz-ALU&feature=related