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Eighteen years on how has Zimbabwe changed since independence? Certainly there was a change of name but if we try to measure things in terms of the political question which affects so directly the majority of the population (we are, of course, talking about land) the change is far less momentous.

Today, September 9th, sees the start of a three day conference in Harare seeking money from donors in order to get on with its reformist programme of buying land from the whites for the government's resettleent plans. However, despite earlier public pronouncements that some 1 billion pounds might be on the table the government is now trying to play down hopes with talk of a long haul ahead.

There probably isn't much hope to talk down around the country. The World Bank lists Zimbabwe at number 5 in its table of countries with the greatest income inequality (behind South Africa, Gabon, Sierra Leone and Brazil) with 46% of households below the poverty line and the highest incidence to be found n the communal lands where an estimated 66% live in hardship.

Mugabe's regime - which posed as the countries National Liberators 18 years ago - have failed to produce anything of note in all this time.

Currently some 5.6m are crowded onto 1.6m hectares in the communal lands whilst at the other end of the scale 5,000 large scale farms - geared towards the international markets - cover 10m hectares and support about 1.3m people.

Back in 1980, soon after taking power, Comrade Bob promised 162,500 families would be 'resettled' within 3 years. Today less than one third have got there and even those who have have often failed in making a go of it because of lack of basic support in the way of education and finance.

And now the programme seems to be stalling even further. Few families will be able to afford the relocation costs which run in at 360 pounds per plot but that isn't the rub. As the big commercial farms go out of mass production exports could fall by some 40% and because of their dependency on the land owners 25% of those with work now may be without it.

FIGHTING BACK

Recently there have been more and more incidents of squatting around the country. The government has responded with the carrot - resettlement before the November rains - and the stick - forced eviction. Neither ploy is much of a winner as the politics of the situation - presidential elections on the horizon - rule out too much of the hard stuff where the case for land rights is unchallengeable. The people of Zimbabwe have a chance to sieze the initiative. Perhaps the example of the MST in Brazil could serve as a model for a popular movement.

lingvoj
9th Sept 1998

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