ZIMBABWE LETTER: Where once the country had a thriving farming industry, it is now ruined. Land invasions and political corruption have wreaked havoc
WE HAVE had a superb wet season, well above our average. In the north it has been drier, but the distribution of the rain has been so regular that many are saying that they have record yields on the little they were able to plant.
A feature of this season is that the rivers have not flooded as in the past – roaring raging tides of brown water, sweeping away all in their path.
The reason is that there are so few cattle. To raise cattle, you must have security and following the farm invasions, no one has security. There is simply no rule of law and all forms of livestock are vulnerable to theft. So the veldt is green and lush, grass up to your shoulders almost everywhere.
The winter fires are going to be terrible because there is so much grass and there are no firebreaks. Who builds firebreaks on land they do not own? Even with the good rains I personally do not expect maize production to reach more than 500,000 tonnes, about 25 per cent of what we need. We already know that the tobacco yield is not going to exceed 35,000 tonnes – about 15 per cent of what we grew in the past, and even this is under threat from the current wave of farm invasions.
In the year 2000, our farming industry consisted of about 700,000 small-scale farmers on nearly 20 million hectares (49 million acres). They grew 60 per cent of our maize needs and about 85 per cent of the cotton plus a fair amount of beans, groundnuts and sorghum. They supported a population of about 3½ million people.
That same year we had about 5,500 commercial farmers, working some 8 million hectares, employing 350,000 and supporting some 2 million people.
These farmers were among the most productive in the world. They supplied global markets with flue-cured tobacco – taking third place behind the United States and Brazil. They produced 600,000 tonnes of sugar and 1 million tonnes of maize. In addition they sold more than 400,000 head of cattle annually, made the country self-sufficient in milk, pork, poultry and fruit of all kinds and supplied 8 per cent of Europe’s horticultural imports.
Some 25 per cent of these farmers were black and most farms employed black managers. Their owners had purchased 83 per cent of all these farms after independence in 1980 having first obtained certificates of “No Interest” from the State indicating that the land was not required for land reform.
Today we have a handful of productive farms still operating, either under their original owners or under those who have occupied them since the owners were driven off their properties.
At the start of this season I think we had about 300 dairy farms, 200 tobacco growers and a small number of fruit and horticultural producers. Instead of being net agricultural exporters, we now import 80 per cent of our food and are the largest beneficiary of food aid in the world. We export less tobacco than any other country in the region, including Mozambique. Sugar production is down by 50 per cent and we are importing it. We are also now importing milk, pork and even poultry.
Our once diversified and competitive industries are a broken, empty shell, starved of raw materials and packaging and spare parts. Financially insolvent, they cannot even borrow funds to restart their operations – the banks have no resources to lend.
Owners of large-scale farms have taken their case to the courts and have won.
The courts have consistently stated that their rights have been violated. They hold valid and legal title to the land they once farmed and that the action taken to dispossess them was racially motivated and criminal in intent. These same courts have stated that unless the state pays the original owners fair and reasonable compensation for the losses sustained, the state cannot claim ownership.
The present farm invasions are even worse. Zanu PF signed the Global Political Agreement last year, but is now ignoring those clauses that state the new inclusive government must restore the rule of law and protect property rights.
In fact it is the view of those who negotiated the agreement that any farm invasions after the September 15th are a violation of the agreement. Those who have planted crops this past summer did so in the belief that they would be allowed to complete the season and reap the results. Not so. By simply writing a letter, a senior official can give anyone the right to invade a property, evict the owner and take possession of the homestead, crops, equipment and livestock.
If they defy the order, these farmers and their workers are then being threatened with prosecution and imprisonment and magistrates are “fast tracking” these and in many cases, imprisoning the farmers and their staff for occupying their properties “illegally”.
We have good information that magistrates (not all of them) are taking payments from the cabal which is running this campaign in return for loyalty and fast action.
No amount of argument that “the land was taken from us and all we are doing is taking it back” will cut any ice with the courts.
Abroad, little or nothing is known of the trauma which has been visited upon millions displaced by the farm invasions.
Many of my friends who were farmers loved their land and way of life. They invested everything and took little out, have no pensions or external assets worth talking about. Many are now destitute or working at menial jobs in cities near and far.
The generosity of countries – especially Britain and the US – who have made aid available to alleviate the tragedy created by this man-made catastrophe is laudable. But it also makes it possible for the people who did this to get away with it despite the consequences. In times like these, justice is needed.
Eddie Cross is a businessman and MDC member of parliament for Bulawayo