Policy Brief No. 2014 02, Zimbabwean context, one witnesses an interesting mixture of international investors, politicians and rich white businesses coming together to acquire large tracts of land. The study focuses on Nuanetsi Range in National and International Mwenezi and bio-fuel plant in Chisumbanje. Showing how communities with different Actors in the Orchestration of claims to land have been affected by land Large-scale Land Deals in acquisitions, it questions the historical evolution of contested lands in both areas. : What’s in It for What is interesting is to highlight how Smallholder Farmers? government, local elites and investors use legal systems to justify denying people’s access to land. Manase Kudzai Chiweshe and Study Areas Patience Mutopo Nuanetsi Ranch is located in Mwenezi East in the Southern part of Zimbabwe, in Province. It is located 3 kms from the Chirundu- R1 highway which Organisation for Social Science connects Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Researh in Eastern and Southern Africa. It is approximately 500 metres from Africa (OSSREA) the Mwenezi Rural District Council, were the offices of the district administrator, environmental management agency, the Ministry of constitutional affairs and the Introduction district agricultural extension are located. Nuanetsi is located in Ward Thirteen. It ittle research has been done on covers more than 376,995 hectares of land the possible benefits of large- ( files, February 2010), scale land deals for local which constitute more than 1% of communities. This work builds Zimbabwe’s total land area. on a recent study that seeks to outline the potential benefits of land deals in Chisumbanje is a village in the province L of Manicaland, Zimbabwe. It is located in terms of infrastructural, human and social development through increased employment the Dowoyo communal land on the eastern and benefits flowing directly into recipient bank of the Save River. It is about 95 kms communities. While narrowing the lacuna in south of Birchenough Bridge on the literature which is dominated by work on the Birchenough Bridge- road. The negative aspects of land deals, this study also village is in District and is provides an interesting dimension to land bordered by villages such as deals which is peculiar to Zimbabwe. In Chinyamukwakwa and Mashubi. The ethanol 2000, the Zimbabwean government plant in Chisumbanje was a US$600 million embarked on a land reform programme project commissioned in 2010. After which increased smallholder farmers and operations began, it was producing 70,000 allowed them access to commercial farming litres of fuel per month by August 2011. The areas. However, through land deals, areas plant has over 5,000 hectares of land under such as Mwenezi are witnessing the sugar cane to sustain the production levels. government disenfranchise the same There are also around 400 out growers in communities it had empowered with land surrounding communities. The project is a ownership. This study questions the identity joint partnership entered by the Agricultural and organisation of the various actors and Rural Development Authority with involved in these deals and how they impact Madcom Rating, Green Fuel Investments and local communities. It focuses on both the Madcom Investments. Residents of positive and negative aspects of large-scale Chisumbanje have gone as far as petitioning land deals in Zimbabwe. Within the Parliament arguing that they were not properly consulted before the deal was done.

Policy Brief 1 | Page National and International Actors in the Orchestration of Large Scale Land Deals in Zimbabwe

Methodology c) Actors and Dynamics of Land Deals The study utilized different approaches for Nuanetsi: Nuanetsi Ranch was owned by the two sites mainly due to the difference in Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company time and contexts. The Mwenezi study was of until 1989 when it was mainly aided by an already ongoing purchased by the Development Trust of ethnographic study that commenced in 2009 Zimbabwe (DTZ). The late Joshua Nkomo, and was still ongoing in 2012. Vice President of Zimbabwe, founded the Trust in June 1989 with the aim of The Chisumbanje case study included in- developing the poor in Matabeleland depth interviews, focus group discussions, provinces. Past board members of the Trust key informant interviews, desk research, included ZANU PF elites (and former PF with farmers, desk research. Key informant ZAPU in the party) such as Simon Muzenda, interviews sought information from Edison Zvobgo, John Nkomo, Sydney government officials, representatives of non- Sekeramayi and Dumiso Dabengwa, among governmental organizations, workers at the others. Since the early 1990s, numerous plant, traditional leaders, opinion international investment companies have leaders and district officials. The qualitative courted the DTZ for investment data were analysed using thematic analysis. opportunities in Nuanetsi. The DTZ entered Research Findings into a joint venture with Zimbabwe Bio- Energy with a view of unlocking the true a) Displacement of Families economic value of Nuanetsi Ranch. The joint Nuanetsi: Although the project’s activities venture terms between Zimbabwe Bio-Energy which include dam building, sugar mills and (ZBE) and the DTZ have given the company irrigation are being discussed, all involving land utilization powers but the land remains significant displacement of people — the property of the Trust. including perhaps up to 6,000 households Chisumbanje: The land on both estates that from Nuanetsi, what is currently known is comprise the company belongs to the that soldiers and police were (back in Agricultural and Rural Development February 2009) given authority to evict a Authority (ARDA) through lease agreements large number of farmers on Nuanetsi ranch with the Chipinge Rural District Council and so that the project could take off. has been accessed through two separate Chisumbanje: As of June 2012, figures from Build, Operate and Transfer agreements the Chipinge Rural District Council indicated between the two private agricultural that out of the 1,733 families displaced by companies: Madcom Investments (operating the company, only 499 were allocated 0.5 at Chisumbanje) and Rating Investments hectares of land each. (operating at Middle Sabi). The companies have been owned by maverick millionaire, b) Gendered Dimensions of Land Deals . As of 2008, Rautenbach Nuanetsi: In terms of the gender dynamics was on a travel ban list in both the European generated by the eviction threats posed by Union and United States, for it was alleged the government, women and children were at that he aided ’s government a much more disadvantaged position. This financially, regardless of international disadvantaged position of the women and sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe to limit children emanated from the structural Mugabe’s grip of power. configurations of the society at Chigwizi, d) Positive Spinoffs of Land Deals which placed them in a much more vulnerable position. Elderly women are Nuanetsi: At the time of the data collection, susceptible to threats of eviction because of the ZBE Company had more than 100,000 the intersectionality of gender and age in the crocodiles the skins and the meat of which customary norms of the Karanga. were ear-marked for export to the European Chisumbanje: Women within households Union member countries such as Germany. are responsible for food provision and loss of The sub activities, done within the project land meant that they face challenges in area, besides bio-fuels production include ensuring their children had food. The results crocodile farming, cattle ranching, and game revealed how the process of global capital keeping. These activities have provided influx as represented by key investors in employment opportunities for some members Green Fuels has found ways to use women of the local communities. For instance, in for cheap social reproduction whilst 2010, it was reported that the Crocodile supporting the gender inequalities existent in Department alone had already created more society. than 2,000 jobs (Table 1).

Policy Brief 2 | Page National and International Actors in the Orchestration of Large Scale Land Deals in Zimbabwe

Table 1. Employment statistics full resettlement and rehabilitation packages. Permanent Temporary Percentage of locals () • Prioritize projects that work with existing smallholders. The best path to increasing 3,369 1,089 32% agricultural production typically involves SOURCE: Greenfuels helping smallholder farmers to close this gap rather than just introducing large- Chisumbanje: On a monthly average, a cash scale production in non-cultivated areas or injection of $US2 million goes into moving smallholder farmers on the land Checheche Growth Point as wages, salaries altogether. and procurement finance for various consumables within the project. Seven banks • Ensure transparency. This should involve have opened up to mop up this cash and maintaining public records of all the provide banking services for the thousands of significant documents relating to the staff. The flagship of the social responsibility investment and building independent programme is a 4,000 hectare community monitoring and evaluation mechanisms irrigation scheme being developed at an for the lifespan of each investment annual rate of 500 hectares to give local rural project. A level playing field for all farmers irrigable plots for mainly food crops. parties requires easy access to relevant To date, just over 700 households have been information. Public notice should be settled on irrigation plots. Greenfuels required to provide interested and affected employs a total of 975 workers. Out of that parties a true opportunity to register their number, 202 workers (20.7% of the total) are claims. from the Chipinge District. Recommendations for Investors in Policy Recommendations Chisumbanje and Mwenezi To Zimbabwe Government Investments that are harmful to local communities are less likely to be successful. The Zimbabwe government should: Constant friction and conflicts with local • Review and strengthen the legal communities are harmful to both sides in the framework governing all aspects of land long-run. To ensure cohesive relationships rights and land acquisitions. This includes with local communities, the owners of the ensuring that the country’s legal companies need to do the following: framework protects the land and water • Respect and protect land rights: In the two rights of existing rural citizens and areas, there are people with claims on the adequately protects vulnerable groups, land and who derive a livelihood from it. including the poor and women. Investors need to understand that even • Consider investments only after where people lack legal rights, they still conducting careful impact assessments. have strong social claims to land. It is These should include land tenure impact important that investors in both cases find assessments, community impact ways to compensate or find alternative to assessments, and environmental impact all those affected by the projects. They assessments. And it should use the should conduct land tenure impact findings of these assessments to structure assessments as doing so will reduce the investments that maximize the equitable likelihood of future opposition from those sharing of economic and social benefits who might have been left out of the while minimizing the negative impacts. process. • Avoid expropriation as a tool for • Do what is right, even if it is not required. accessing land. One means of doing this is This is pertinent to the Chisumbanje case by prioritizing investments that work with where the investors feel that an agreement current owners and do not require the with ARDA who legally owns the land, expropriation of land rights. It also has to would protect them from claims from require investors to obtain the free, prior communal farmers. While legally they and informed consent of the local were not obliged to do anything to help the communities. If expropriation must be farmers, they could have done more to used, it should follow established lessen the impact of land lose. The procedures that include extensive government has now turned the tables by consultation with “land losers”, judicial using legal loopholes within the review, land-for-land compensation, and Indigenisation Act to demand a stake in an

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National and International Actors in the Orchestration of Large Scale Land Deals in Zimbabwe

investment they did not contribute anything African dispossession in the current global land to. rush.” Paper presented at the International Conference on Global Land Grabbing, 6-8 April Recommendations for Smallholder Farmers 2011, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Smallholder farmers in Chisumbanje are Kingdom. already in the process of lobbying policy Anseeuw, W.; Boche, M.; Breu, T.; Giger, M.; Lay, makers and the courts. They should continue J.; Messerli, P. and Nolte, K. 2012. “Transnational and use the election periods as a leverage to land deals for agriculture in the Global South. ensure their interests are addressed. In Analytical report based on the Land Matrix Mwenezi, farmers remain disorganized but Database.” CDE/CIRAD/GIGA, they require a strong association to advocate Bern/Montpellier/Hamburg. for their concerns. Farmers need better organisation and representation which is Cotula, L., Vermeulen, S., Leonard, R. and Keeley, J. missing in the two cases. No farmer union 2009. Land grab or development opportunity? was involved on behalf of the farmers. Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa. London/Rome:IIED/FAO/IFAD. Recommendations for Civil Society Cotula, L. 2012. The international political economy In Chisumbanje, a small organisation led by of the global land rush: A critical appraisal of Clarence Madhuku has over the past few trends, scale, geography and drivers. Journal of years worked with communities and Peasant Studies, 39, no. 3&4: 649–680. displaced households. Their role has Hall, R. 2011a. Land grabbing in Southern Africa: included facilitating advocacy activities and The many faces of the investor rush. Review of assisting communities to petition relevant African Political Economy, 38, no. 128:193–214. authorities. In Mwenezi, there is a lack of civil society participation which is required Hall, R. 2011b. Land grabbing in Africa and the new to assist affected communities with the politics of food. Future-Agricultures Policy Brief following: 041. • Provide awareness, training, and legal aid Matondi. P.B. 2011. Agro investments at a time of programs to help communities understand redistributive reform in Zimbabwe. In Bio fuels, and protect their land rights and to land grabbing and food security in Africa, edited represent their interests in dealing with by Matondi, P.B., Havnevik, K. and Beyene, A. investors and governments. London: ZED • Conduct impact assessments. Assist Mujere, J. and Dombo, S. 2011. “Large-scale governments by developing expertise in investment projects and land grabs in Zimbabwe: and by conducting land tenure impact The case of Nuanetsi Ranch bio- diesel project.” assessments, community impact Paper presented at the International Conference on assessments, and environmental impact Global Land Grabbing, 6–8 April 2011, assessments. University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom. • Mutopo, P. 2011. “Gendered dimensions of land and Monitor and supplement government rural livelihoods: The case of new settler farmer oversight and management of investor displacement at Nuanetsi Ranch, Mwenezi agreements. District, Zimbabwe.” Paper presented at the • Promote greater government and investor International Conference on Global Land transparency by creating and implementing Grabbing, 6-8 April 2011, University of Sussex, systems to monitor land deals and promote Brighton, United Kingdom. information sharing. Mutopo, P. 2012. “Corporate land investments and rural women in Zambia.” Research report for Oxfam Tanzania. References Mutopo, P. and Chiweshe, M.K. (forthcoming). Water Alden Wily, L. 2011. “Nothing new under the sun or a resources and bio-fuel production after fast-track new battle joined? The political economy of land reform in Zimbabwe.

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