Resettled farmers returning to communal areas

Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme is meant to benefit landless people forced to live in congested communal areas, but many of the supposed beneficiaries are turning their backs on their new land. The Dorset resettlement area, 40 km south of the Midlands capital of Gweru, is an example of the shortcomings of President Robert Mugabe's accelerated land redistribution programme - which was meant to reverse the legacy of a century of colonial land policy. When the fast-track land reform programme commenced in 2000, self-styled war veterans led hundreds of land-hungry Zimbabweans into the Dorset area. The landscape, on the borders of Gweru and the ghost mining town of Shurugwi, is arid and dotted with acacia thorn trees, and had mostly been used for cattle-ranching by white commercial farmers. New settlers, who numbered about 6,000 at the peak of the land invasions, generally refer to the area as "Kujambanja" - slang for "a place of violence" in the local Shona language. Most of the new farmers came from the Midlands province, while the rest trekked from Matebeleland South. When IRIN visited the area, at least half the families that had invaded the ranches were now wanting to go back to their original homes, with a significant number uncertain about their future in Dorset. In the settlements, hastily constructed pole and mud huts were falling apart, with hardly any signs of tending the land as the rainy season approached. A few goats and cattle roamed between small patches of fields cultivated in the last three years. Machinda Furusa, from Chachacha, 17 km south of Shurugwi town, said he has opted to go back to his original home out of disillusionment. "I went to Dorset in 2001, during the height of farm invasions. At first I was sceptical about Kujambanja, but when I saw a significant number of my neighbours leaving, I decided to join the trek," Furusa told IRIN. During the early days of the fast-track programme there had been a sense of euphoria "about farm invasions, and I genuinely believed that, at last, I would be a proud owner of my own piece of land". "[But] I discovered that the area we had been made to move into did not have good soils, having been reserved for cattle ranching. In addition to last year's insufficient rains, there is no way in which the new farmers there could get good harvests owing to the poor soils, which are just as bad as where I come from," added Furusa. Since he had only two head of cattle for draught power, he said, preparing his plot was proving too difficult - a situation that left him with no option but to return to his father's home, where he could pool resources with his extended family. The father of three charged that by moving thousands of people to unsuitable land, veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war and the government were only interested in getting their votes in the parliamentary and presidential elections (in 2000 and 2002, respectively). Like the other settlers turning their backs on Dorset, Furusa complained that schools were very remote and it would be difficult for his two school-going children to travel the distance. The Dorset resettlement area also lacks proper health facilities, and transport is mostly by ox-drawn cart. Furusa said a significant number of the land occupiers who had moved to Dorset and nearby farms were resorting to gold panning in the Mutevekwi River, which runs close to the small town of Shurugwi, to survive. A Midlands provincial lands committee member, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted that soils in the Dorset area were poor. "In fact, the problem of poor soils is not peculiar to farms in the Dorset area alone. Since the beginning of the fast-track land redistribution exercise, acquiring sufficiently fertile land in our province has been a headache for us," he told IRIN. The land committee member said he hoped the government would use some of the land currently being listed for seizure from commercial farmers to resettle the disgruntled new settlers. However, the black farmers should not solely blame the government for their current situation. "No-one was forced to go to Dorset, or any other poor area in the province. It is thus unfair to say the ruling party wanted to attract votes by giving a semblance of land redistribution. After all, that was the kind of land available, and we did our best in identifying the areas [where we could place] land-hungry people," he explained. Observers and traditional leaders said the return of settlers would result in added pressure to the exhausted communal lands. Headman Samero Mashuku, also from Chachacha, said there was hardly any evidence that the land resettlement programme had eased congestion in his area. "The situation here, and in neighbouring villages, remains largely the same. We were relieved to some extent when some of our sons decided to go to the resettlement areas, but now that they are returning we will have another headache of finding space to stay," he said. LACK OF SUPPORT A Human Rights Watch report last year decried "the lack of structured support for new settlers", while the Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) told IRIN recently that the lack of subsidised agricultural inputs, and the sky-rocketing prices of inputs on the market, were serious obstacles to the success of new farmers. Tafireyi Chamboko, the chief economist of the ZFU, told IRIN that "there's a shortage of some of the inputs. In terms of maize seed, we'll probably get about 50 percent of the requirement from local [seed] production". Although the government had been trying to supply inputs to new farmers through an inputs credit scheme, "there are not enough inputs to meet the requirements", he complained. ABUSE OF PROCESS ALLEGED Recently there have also been reports of the forced eviction of thousands of resettled people to make way for government officials and ruling party stalwarts. At the Windcrest farm near Masvingo city, about 1,000 resettled farmers' homes were torched when they were removed to make way for an official in the foreign affairs ministry, the privately owned The Daily News reported. Masvingo provincial administrator Alphonse Chikurira defended the eviction, saying it was "illegal to occupy or invade a farm owned by a black man". The settlers, who had occupied the farm in 2000, were angered by the torching of their houses, belongings and crops. They also expressed dismay that no arrangements were made for them to move their livestock. The Windcrest incident is the latest in a wave of similar evictions. In mid-August, the government reportedly ordered 1,000 settlers to vacate Little England Farm in Mugabe's rural home area, to make way for Winnie Mugabe, the widow of the president's late nephew. The settlers are currently involved in running battles with the widow - news reports on Thursday said the disgruntled settlers had assaulted her, and her two sons, Jongwe and Hugh. There have also been reports of forced evictions of new settlers in Mashonaland Central, Manicaland and Mashonaland East provinces. Land reform minister Flora Buka last year headed a land audit team, whose investigations revealed gross violations of the "one man, one farm" principle, with prominent politicians allegedly having grabbed several farms for themselves. The results of her report were never made public by government, but the document was leaked to the local and international media. Robert Mugabe recently called on his lieutenants to surrender the excess farms they had grabbed. However, only one provincial governor was reported to have surrendered any property. A land review committee, formed at the behest of Mugabe to carry out a follow-up land audit, is understood to have finished its work. However, this committee, led by Charles Utete, the former secretary to the president and cabinet, has yet to release its findings.