The Hindu : International : Zimbabwe move may affect agriculture

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 10, 2004

International

International

Zimbabwe move may affect agriculture

PRETORIA, JUNE 9. The Zimbabwean Government announced yesterday that it intends to nationalise all farmland, a step which its critics fear will hasten the collapse of agriculture when millions of people depend on food aid.

The Land Reform and Resettlement Minister, John Nkomo, told the Herald newspaper: ``All land shall be state land and there will be no such thing called private land.''

He added: ``The Government has stepped up efforts to acquire more land with the sole objective of nationalising all productive farmland, from crop fields to conservancies, in the country.''

The Government has forced nine-tenths of the 4,500 white commercial farmers off their land in the past four years by controversial and often violent seizures. Output has fallen so badly that last year nearly two-thirds of Zimbabwe's 12 million people relied on food aid.

``This is not in the best interests of Zimbabweans, black and white,'' said John Worsley-Worswick, director of the pressure group Justice for Agriculture, which holds that land reform should be carried out according to the rule of law.

``What the country needs is individual titles to land for black and white farmers alike. That will encourage development and productive farming of the land. Individual ownership will empower all Zimbabweans. State ownership empowers a dictator.''

He said nationalisation would not stop at farmland. ``Residential properties, commercial and industrial properties will all become subject to state seizures.''

Though the President, Robert Mugabe, says seized land is intended for poor black Zimbabweans, most of the best farms have been grabbed by Cabinet Ministers, army officers and others connected to his party, Zanu-PF. But it all remains in state control. No one has been given title deeds. ``This nationalisation is illegal and unconstitutional,'' Mr. Worsley-Worswick said.

Though the Government said the seizures had been completed last year, it has taken a further 259 mostly white-owned farms since January and has given notice of confiscate to 918 more.

Mr. Mugabe says his seizures are necessary to restore land to the black majority dispossessed when Britain colonised the country more than a century ago, but his critics say a gradual transfer of land, coupled with training and finance for seed and fertilizer, would have been better for all Zimbabweans.

``With wholesale nationalisation Zimbabwe is following in the footsteps of Zambia, Mozambique and Angola,'' an agricultural specialist said. ``Those countries have all seen their agriculture decline, causing suffering to the average person.

That is what will happen in Zimbabwe.''

— Guardian Newspaers Limited 2004

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