Strike highlights plight of farm workers

A strike over low wages on a farm earning hard currency, acquired by a government parastatal, has underlined the precarious existence of Zimbabwe's farm workers. The horticultural farm at Kondozi in the eastern province of Manicaland was reportedly seized by armed men in April on behalf of the Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA), despite the property being designated an Export Processing Zone and therefore not liable for compulsory acquisition. ARDA slashed the workforce from the 5,000 prior to the occupation to around 150, and reclassified those as basic labourers entitled to a lower wage, according to the General and Allied Plantation Workers Union (GAPWUZ). "They were initially agro-based workers receiving about Zim $130,000 [US $23] per month because they are involved in processing, but ARDA turned them into general agricultural workers and is paying them Zim $72,800 [US $13] - that's why they had to engage in this industrial action," GAPWUZ official Gift Muti told IRIN. Some 1,500 workers living on the farm were displaced by the farm takeover, and around 3,500 from outlying areas lost their jobs. According to a report released last month by Refugees International, a pattern of displacement has accompanied the government's controversial land reform programme since it began in 2000, creating a population of more than 150,000 homeless former farm workers. "The government of Zimbabwe refuses to acknowledge that their implementation of the land redistribution programme has caused forced displacement. To further compound the issue, governmental authorities have increasingly restricted access to farming areas by humanitarian agencies and independent analysts, making it difficult for the displaced and other vulnerable groups to access humanitarian assistance," said the report. Displacement has also been due to economic conditions on the redistributed farms, Refugees International noted. It identified five groups: people "internally" trapped, who are unable to leave the farms; people displaced temporarily to forested or uncultivated areas; returnees to communal areas; peri-urban squatters; and refugees and economic migrants. Some have found employment with the newly resettled farmers, but the relationship has been hit-and-miss, said GAPWUZ. A number of new farmers have been able to afford the minimum wage, with others offering payment in kind. Out-of-work former farm labourers who have stayed in the rural areas have turned to the informal sector, selling produce or panning for gold. Refugees International called on the government to acknowledge the vulnerability of former farm workers and allow humanitarian agencies to provide direct assistance to them. It also recommended the formation of mixed needs assessment teams with local NGOs, investment in skills training and education for those farm workers who have not been retained in the commercial agriculture sector, and to provide them with access to land. The report also called on the government and the United Nations to jointly undertake a comprehensive vulnerability assessment in the commercial farming areas, rural communal lands and informal settlements. IRIN was unable to get a comment from Zimbabwe's ministry of information. For more information see: www.refugeesinternational.org