Fast track land reform and agricultural productivity in zimbabwe precious zikhali1 abstract in the year 2000 the government of zimbabwe launched the fast track land reform programme ftlrp as part of its ongoing land reform and resettlement programme, which seeks to address the racially skewed land distribution pattern inherited at. As part of the effort to resolve the conflict, zapu later merged with zanupf. Land has been a source of political conflict in zimbabwe since colonization, when the country was known as rhodesia, both. A critical analysis of the land reform programme in zimbabwe.
The zimbabwean government will then at last be able to tackle the contentious and highly politicised land question unhindered by the constraints imposed by britain in 197980. This pdf is made available under a creative commons. Land, identity, and power global crisis solutions internal position paper may 2004 global crisis solutions is a consulting group of preparedness, humanitarian, conflict and recovery specialists. Following the pres entation of the cost estimates, the return to land reform is calculated. There are those who are of the opinion that all land acquired should be returned to evicted farmers, full stop.
This study is a qualitativebased research project which will combine the. I think that in order to measure the success of land reform, we need to go beyond statistics of crop production, per capita income and gdp. Land reform in zimbabwe neil h thomas department of city and regional planning, cardiff university, glamorgan building, king edward vii avenue, cardiff, cf10 3wa, wales email. Anyone flying over zimbabwe on a clear day in the year 2000 would have seen huge differences in the farming regions, and perhaps better understood the countrys longstanding issue with land reform. This study explored how the land reform in zimbabwe empowered women economically through sustainable livelihoods initiatives. The targets of the first phase of the land reform and resettlement program were landless families, the unemployed and poor families with dependants between the ages of 18 and 55 years and the returning refugees. There is widespread agreement on the need for land reform in zimbabwe as a means of reducing poverty. The political and economic developments since 1980, which underlie land reform. Land reform under structural adjustment in zimbabwe. A discussion on the outcomes of land reform from a poverty reduction perspective and based on the evidence from masvingo is presented next.
Already, zimbabwe s government had enough power to take white landowners land away and give it to the landless blacks, but the worst solution is to give the. In the early years of the reforms, the programme captured international attention and imagination, while in zimbabwe itself it radically altered peoples lives and livelihoods, and at the same time reawakened peoples memories of the past. Research work on the performance of zimbabwes land reforms, more so the extent to which the. Land reform in zimbabwe, 19801990 robin palmer introduction on 18 april 1990 zimbabwe celebrates the 10th anniversary of its independence. An adapted version of this paper appears in the edited collection post independence land reform in zimbabwe, published in may 2004 by the friedrich ebert stiftung in harare. The dutch claimants in the case, bernardus henricus funnekotter and others v. Since the 1990s, land has been taken from the white landowners and given to landless blacks in order to provide equality within the country of zimbabwe. Fast track land reform in zimbabwe human rights watch. Maphisa in matobo district in matabeleland has transformed from its early days as a tilcor tribal trust land development corporation growth point linked to the nearby antelope farm estate. Redistributive land reform and poverty reduction in zimbabwe. Land and agriculture in zimbabwe following land reform. The land reform programme in zimbabwe has been a major area of. The fasttrack land reform and agrarian change in zimbabwe.
Political economy analysis of fast track land reform programme in zimbabwe arnold rangarirayi chamunogwa a minithesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of arts in governance and development at the institute of development studies, university of sussex. It has led to zimbabwe s economic and social collapse. Pdf an overview of fast track land reform in zimbabwe. Fast track land reform in zimbabwe centre for public impact. Land reform is probably one of the most difficult domestic policy issues to be dealt with by zimbabwe, namibia, south africa and australia.
The government soon put in place legislation to protect the new settlers. The term land reform in zimbabwe mainly refers to the postcolonial period in which land redistribution is a major feature of government policy. It is also during this period that warning signs of the imminent land occupation problem became clear. The government took the land from white landowners and in 2002 a law was passed that allowed zimbabwe s government to take away white owned land. Land reform in the twenty years after independence.
New narrative on land reform, 2 africafocus bulletin feb 26, 20 226 reposted from sources cited below. The fasttrack land reform and agrarian change in zimbabwe zimbabwe s fast track land reform program ftlrp formally began with the land acquisition act of 2002. His latest publication by zed books is biofuels, land grabbing and food. Reframing the wildlife based land reform programmes in zimbabwe sokwanele. Land has been a source of political conflict in zimbabwe since colonization, when. Race gender and class in the government of commercial farm workers in hurunawe district. Overturning the settler colonial pattern of land use and creating a new agrarian structure has had farreaching consequences. A read is counted each time someone views a publication summary such as the title, abstract, and list of authors, clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the fulltext. In this article it refers to the process of restructuring the distribution of land ownership rights particularly. Current land reform policy in south africa seems set to advance the interest. In april 2009, a tribunal of the international centre for settlement of investment disputes icsid ordered the government of zimbabwe to compensate a group of dutch nationals whose farms were expropriated under zimbabwe s controversial land reform program. On the one hand, many critics paint it as chaotic, disastrous and bloody, while claiming the social and economic plights the country has suffered subsequently, as symptomatic.
Section one addresses the land and agrarian question in settler africa, while section 2 provides a historical overview of the zimbabwe s land question and its market based reforms until 1996. Jul 26, 2018 land reform has historically focused on redistributing land owned by white to black farmers, to correct what the postindependence leadership said were colonial wrongs of the past. After 2000, around 145,000 families were allocated smallholder plots and a further 20,000 took on medium scale farms. Much of this land was previously cattle ranches, with limited. Zimbabwe uncertainty over the land reform programme, declining business confidence and shortages of foreign exchange, which resulted in a drastic reduction in imports of raw material.
Hundreds of zimbabwe s white farmers prepared to leave their land yesterday following robert mugabes announcement of the seizure of 804 mostly white. The second phase of the land redistribution and resettlement programme in the form of the fast track land reform programme ftlrp, which started in 2000, has created an expanded number and array of small, medium and large scale farms, and effectively transferring ownership from the minority, white farmers to new indigenous farmers. Land reform can generate sustainable livelihoods for the beneficiaries. Land reform and agricultural production in zimbabwe. Johannesburg, 3 october irin zimbabwe s fasttrack land reform programme has ignored the critical role played by the commercial farming sector. World media demonised zimbabwe and the fasttrack land reforms which were initiated in 1999. Pdf the reconfiguration of land and economic opportunity. But 245,000 new farmers have received land, and most of them are farming it. The countrys land use and ownership have been significantly reconfigured by the fasttrack land reform programme undertaken during robert mugabes rule. Zimbabwes land reform has not been neat, and huge problems remain.
In this paper, we combine primary and secondary data from various sources relating to. Zimbabwe, on one side of the spectrum, is facing a crisis in democratisation due to its radical approach to land reform. Impact of the fast track land reform on rural poverty in masvingo district in zimbabwe matunhu j department of development studies midlands state university gweru, zimbabwe abstract this study investigated the effect of the fast track land reform in addressing the poverty crisis in masvingo district. South africa has just completed a land reform summit july 2005, and the process of land claims by black africans3 against white african commercial farmers has intensified. Their argument is that it has been almost two decades since land was acquired and there is nothing to show for it. The land reform in zimbabwe was organised in line with that slogan and had the following basic elements of speed, which made it to be known as the fast track land reform. Research was conducted in makoni district of manicaland province, zimbabwe. One of the most critical issues zimbabwe currently faces is that of land redistribution. Ten years after the fast track land reform programme in zimbabwe, its. Editorial introduction article pdf available in journal of peasant studies 385. Land reform politics in zimbabwe and south africa nyu arts. The zimbabwean government will then at last be able to tackle the contentious and highly politicised land. But conditions were put on the way that the money handed over could be used. On 18 april 1990 zimbabwe celebrates the 10th anniversary of its independence.
The lessons from zimbabwes land reform for its neighbors. In zimbabwes current crisis, it is easy to overlook the fact that the country had a. Land, identity, and power global crisis solutions page 5 land segregation was institutionalized in the land apportionment act of 1930 which made it almost impossible for africans to buy land adjacent to white farms. Land reform in zimbabwe is the greatest flop in the world but a success in the eyes of zanu pfutseki. Pdf most commentary on zimbabwes land reform insists that agricultural production has almost totally. Land reform has returned to prominence not just in zimbabwe but also in southern africa more generally. In this section, we zero in on masvingo province in the central south and east of the country. We offer rapid response capacity and strategic planning strengths that position us as the most effective partner in any crisis. Land reform in zimbabwe has radically transformed the rural economy. A 1998 survey of farm workers in zimbabwe detailing their demographic, and skill, land access and viewpoints of land reform and redistribution is used to examine the very real constraints and the possibilities for poverty reduction among longstanding marginalized social groups in the ongoing fasttrack land resettlement in zimbabwe. Land and agriculture in zimbabwe following land reform zimbabweland july 31, 2017 in may, i was invited to give a talk on zimbabwes land reform and its aftermath by a great new student initiative at soas school of african and asia studies focused on agriculture and development in africa. Kinsey free university amsterdam, amsterdam, the netherlands university of zimbabwe, harare, zimbabwe summary.
How land reform is transforming a small town in southern zimbabwe zimbabweland. Land reform in zimbabwe free international relations and. Land reform and redistribution in zimbabwe since 1980 fao. Jan 23, 2017 in the land reform debates, two ideas stand out. Evaluate the failures and or successes of land tenure reform in zimbabwe. The resultant sanctions brought about poor economic performance.
The fast track land reform programme ftlrp in zimbabwe has been the focus of heated. Introduction this report is an interim assessment by the united nations development programmeled mission to assess progress of land reform in zimbabwe requested by both the government of zimbabwe and a committee of commonwealth foreign. Zimbabwes land reform policies and president robert. It shows that the popular assumption about failed land reform in zimb. Aug 30, 2017 fast track land reform in zimbabwe written by claudia irigoyen africa infrastructure economics and finance the zimbabwean government began its land reforms in the 1980s to address the imbalances in land access ownership and use that had existed in the country before independence. Land reform, sanctions, regime change, and sovereignty one of the enduring problems of the zimbabwe crisis revolves around understanding the meaning of the terms employed by the respective protagonists to describe the crisis, whether they are zimbabwean, african, or western. Pdf the research analysed the impacts of land reform programme on politicoeconomic development in zimbabwe using the. Land reform in zimbabwe has been highly controversial. This paper assesses the potential consequences of a land reform scheme that draws on proposals. It was used by the aging mugabe to gain political mileage and grip which he was losing to mdc led tsvanngirai.
First and foremost, the reader should know that this is an academic studys published results. This in effect was the beginning of zimbabwe s land problem. Introduction at independence in 1980 zimbabwe inherited a highly skewed pattern of land distribution. Impact of the fast track land reform on rural poverty in. The governments land reform program, char acterized by chaos and violence, badly damaged commercial farming. Even though land policy would attempt a merge of the issues, practical action on. This website presents material linked to an ongoing research project in masvingo province in the southeast of the country. Land rights and tenure security in zimbabwes post fast track. By the end of the second decade of independence, the pace of land reform had.
Speeding up the identification for compulsory acquisition of not less than. Jan 28, 20 in the biggest land reform in africa, 6,000 white farmers have been replaced by 245,000 zimbabwean farmers. Reframing the wildlife based land reform programmes in zimbabwe. Having often travelled to zimbabwe since 2003 and during my intermittent stay there i never found an issue which aroused more passions than land reforms. He has published widely and has contributed to many national, regional and international networks on land and agrarian reform issues. Zimbabwe s political and socioeconomic map since 2000. A mere reference to land reforms in zimbabwe raised eyebrows.
Much of the scholarship of zimbabwe s land reform since 2000 has been deeply divided. Print and ebook editions of this work are available to zed. What does the future hold for south africas land reform program. The government came up with new and revised land reform policy after 1990, passing the land acquisition act in 1992, which was supposed to speed up the land reform process through land designation and compulsory acquisition.
Zimbabwes land struggles and land rights in histori cal. Zimbabwes fast track land reform has generated significant attention in southern africa. The government also failed to resolve the land reform question1 a matter of social injustice in zimbabwe. The issue has its roots in the colonial period, when rudd, in 1888, per. Disparity between policy design and implementation medicine masiiwa institute of development studies university of zimbabwe may 2004 note. Land reform in zimbabwe university of south africa. Agriculture, manufacturing, mining and tourism the economys growth engines have been the sectors most affected by the crisis. This chapter examines this affect, and forms the backdrop to the later investigation of zimbabwean, south african and british foreign policy. This is followed by the section that presents the framework for understanding poverty alleviation in the resettlement areas.
In the early years of the reforms, the programme captured international attention and imagination. Veterans of zimbabwe s liberation war also began to feel the pinch of a declining economy and to agitate government for greater monetary assistance for their efforts in the liberation struggle. Land reform, sanctions, regime change, and sovereignty. Jan 16, 2018 zimbabwe urgently needs a new system of land administration to harness development in the agricultural sector. It covers a real examination of land reform in zimbabwe specifically as masvingo province, which experienced the greatest land reform in the country conducted by ian scoones of the university of sussex. This policy allowed government to acquire, for compensation, land that it deemed. It focused on the implementation of the land reform programme and whether women benefitted economically from the initiative. In each of these countries the process of land reform is incomplete. During the first and second phases of the land reform programme government pursued a narrowly defined land reform programme which focused solely on the in his ph. The land tenure act of 1969 entrenched the 1930 legislation. Clearly if land is a source of economic viability, women should also be able to claim it without having to literally ride on someones back to enjoy the commodity and the products therefrom. Land reform in zimbabwe officially began in 1980 with the signing of the lancaster house agreement, as an effort to more equitably distribute land between black subsistence farmers and white zimbabweans of european ancestry, who had traditionally enjoyed superior political and economic status. The land reform programme in zimbabwe has been a major area of international discussion for almost five years now. Benefits and costs of land reform in zimbabwe with implications for southern africa, klaus deininger, hans hoogeveen and bill kinsey.
The land reform programme is regarded as the third and final stage of zimbabwes liberation struggle. This early land reform produced a rather feudal form of politics based on racial and class discrimination imposed on the african population by the british government and white rhodesians. Overall impacts of fast track land reform programme. If viewed as a project, the npv of the reform is positive for a discount rate that is as high as 20%. Zimbabwe government, 1998 the issue of land redistribution almost vanished from the national agenda during the mid 1980s, prompting some observers to claim that land was not the real issue in zimbabwe as previously thought. Scoones et al 2010, few studies have examined the qualitative character of this outcome and its prospects for progressive social and political transformation in a largely agrarian society. Pdf the land crisis in zimbabwe viewed from south of the. How land reform is transforming a small town in southern zimbabwe. Introduction this report is an interim assessment by the united nations development programmeled mission to assess progress of land reform in zimbabwe requested by both the.
Zimbabwe now has a 30year experience of land reform since independence in 1980. This replaced an agrarian structure that was divided between 4,500 largescale commercial farms and many small communal area farms. In south africa, the removal of president jacob zuma 20092018 ahead of a 2019 general election triggered the land issue once more. The invasion of the largely whiteowned farms, accompanied by violent evictions and wholesale and wanton destruction and looting in 2000, led to a crisis between the judiciary and the executive that resulted in most of the judiciary being forced out of office.
Although it is increasingly recognised that zimbabwe s fast track land reform programme ftlrp, initiated in 2000, was redistributive moyo et al 2009. On the other hand, many supporters of the reforms have tried to show the successes. Key words zimbabwe, land reform, economic returns, propensityscore matching 1. But despite the general consensus not to repeat zimbabwe s economic disaster, few people disagree that land ownership needs to be reformed in south africa. Introduction the land question is one of the central themes in zimbabwean politics. Zimbabwe received financial assistance for land reform during the 1980s and 1990s from various governments. Even though land policy would attempt a merge of the issues, practical action on the ground meant separate settler selection criteria, distinct categories of beneficiaries, different resettlement models and tenure arrangements, and varying plot sizes as well.
The primary goal of the land reform in zimbabwe has always been to create racial parity in access to land for settlement and farming. Simultaneously, the famous lancaster house constitution expires. Fast track land reform in zimbabwe centre for public. Mugabe land seizures force hundreds of farm owners to flee. Political economy analysis of fast track land reform. Zimbabwes land reform since 2000 has been intensely controversial. Land reform, commercial agriculture and local economic. Editors note under the fast track land reform, 169,000 farmers have received land since 2000.
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