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Zimbabwe in Crisis

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Zimbabwe in Crisis ISSUE 1 • SEPTEMBER 2004 Zimbabwe in Crisis CAII • THE CHURCHES’ AGENCY ON INTERNATIONAL ISSUES: RESOURCING CHURCHES AND CONGREGATIONS ON GLOBAL CONCERNS Zimbabwe is in crisis: politically, economically Current Issues and socially. One of Africa’s brightest hopes, Political and Constitutional Crisis: The crisis in Zimbabwe is essentially Zimbabwe had been a model for political. The ruling Zanu PF party, under the leadership of independence reconciliation, food security and economic fighter Robert Mugabe, has been in power since Zimbabwe’s first growth. Now it is regarded as a basket case. elections in 1980. Neither Zanu PF nor Mugabe has been prepared to The Mugabe government faces condemnation have their political stranglehold over the country challenged. Yet in 2000, they faced their first for political intimidation and violent defeat, losing a critical referendum on constitutional reform (a constitutional change that would repression, human rights abuses, its have enabled Mugabe to remain President for life). A close call at the parliamentary elections controversial farm seizure programme and followed, with the newly formed MDC (Movement for Democratic Change), finishing with only five plunging Zimbabwe into economic chaos and seats fewer than Zanu PF. Since then, the Mugabe government has resorted to increasing poverty. corruption and brutality to quell opposition to its rule. The 2000 Parliamentary and 2002 This Hot Topic examines some of the key Presidential elections are subject to widespread allegations of electoral fraud and intimidation. elements of the Zimbabwean crisis current to In a populist land reform programme, the economy has been destroyed to levels where the August 2004, its implications for the churches country can no longer meet its balance of payments or provide basic social services, resulting in and the dilemma it poses for the international unprecedented poverty. community. Land Resettlement: Mugabe’s land reform programme is one aspect of the crisis that has captured headlines around the world. From 2000, the government has encouraged war Why is Zimbabwe veterans to seize and occupy white-owned commercial farms. These invasions have claimed the lives of both white and black citizens, forced thousands of white Zimbabweans off their farms, a Hot Topic? left close to two million black farm workers and their dependants without a livelihood, and destroyed the agricultural system. Much of the land seized remains unproductive because of • The crisis threatens the well-being of millions of lack of expertise, support and inputs. Coupled with drought, Zimbabwe has gone from producing Zimbabweans enough food to export to the entire southern African region to being heavily dependent on food • Over 3 million Zimbabweans are seeking aid. safety and refuge outside the country, including nearly 3000 in New Zealand Economic collapse: According to the IMF and other economic observers: • Seizures of white- owned farms for redistribution • poverty in Zimbabwe has doubled in the last five years and 70% of the population live below to black peasant farmers have captured world the basic needs poverty line media attention, but how much do we know about • economic output has fallen by 37% over the last four years the issues behind the headlines? • school enrolment has dropped to 65% • The crisis raises questions about how churches • inflation is over 600%, requiring large piles of banknotes for simple transactions respond in times of political crisis • unemployment stands at about 70% there are shortages of fuel and foreign currency and transport costs are prohibitive • The international community has been divided • over how to act when powerful elites within a • more than half the population of thirteen million have been dependent on food aid • food has become a political weapon sovereign state abuse citizens’ human rights • The situation highlights the effects of unresolved The Zanu-PF government says the economy is being sabotaged by outsiders in revenge for white colonial tensions for post independence farmers losing their farms in Mugabe’s land redistribution policy. According to independent governments and the continuing difficulties economists, land reform was badly managed, contributing significantly to the economic facing African countries in the global economy meltdown that had its roots in unbudgeted expenditure for Mugabe’s political ends. One of the most disturbing economic outcomes is the reliance on food aid and its manipulation as a political tool. The Anglican Church in The Salvation Army in The Methodist Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand New Zealand, Fiji and New Zealand and Polynesia Tonga Hot Topics • Topic 1 • September 2004 • 1 Facts About Zimbabwe Getting to Crisis Point... The roots of the crisis lie in Zimbabwe’s colonial past and in its post- independence politics. Land: The local Shona people first faced pressure on their land from the 1810s as the Ndbele people moved north to escape white settlement of South Africa. From the 1830s, both Shona and Ndbele were pushed off their land as settlers moved into the area of present day Zimbabwe. African resistance to the invasion lasted until 1897, when their leaders were captured and hanged. Africans were disenfranchised, being denied the vote in 1892 and having the amount of land they could own limited in 1894. During the 1920s and 1930s, new laws barred blacks from owning the best farmland. By 1960, settlers of European origin (approximately 5% of the population) owned 70% of the arable land. In 1985, five years after full independence, 4,500 white New Internationalist 2002 Internationalist New farmers owned around 50% of the productive arable land. Independence agreements provided for land reform with limited financial compensation. These early attempts failed because there was no support for new farmers, many of whom Population: 12,800,000 had been soldiers and did not know how to farm. Dairy herds were lost and cultivation was approximately 3 million (most of them disrupted. The plan was discontinued. In 1990, Parliament approved a new programme for professionals/skilled) have left the country in the expropriation of land held by Europeans at a fixed price. White farmers, supported by legal last four years experts, opposed this as a violation of their constitutional and human rights. Although Area: 390,760 SQ KM recognising the need for land reform, the EU and IMF pressured the government to limit its land appropriation, seeing the programme as too ambitious. Meanwhile, Zanu PF supporters Capitalal: Harare Capital were pressuring the government for the programme to begin. Mugabe vacillated between Currency: Zimbabwe dollar starting and delaying the programme. currently $1 NZ = $5400 Zm In March 2000, black war veterans occupied 420 white owned farms marking the start of Language: English (official) illegal and usually violent land occupations. Mugabe was accused of orchestrating the takeovers to mask the failure of his land programme. Despite international pressure and Ethnic Groups: growing famine, the programme has continued. By March 2003, 3900 white farmers had lost African 98% (Shona 82%, Ndebele 14%, other 2%) their land. Only 120 received compensation - the ones who did not appeal to the courts. By mixed and Asian 1% mid 2004, about 500 white farmers remain. Land seizures continue. white < 1% The land has been given to ‘settlers’ ranging from peasant farmers to urban bureaucrats and Religions: members of Zanu PF’s political elite. In some areas, 60% of the land allocated to small-scale syncretic ( Christian/idigenous beliefs) 50%, black farmers has not been taken up. In the vast majority of cases, the new settlers do not Christian 25% have the seeds, fertilizer, tools, machinery or expertise to farm the land productively. They do Indigenous beliefs 24%, not have tenure or title deeds so cannot get bank loans or any capital to buy what they need. Muslim and other 1% Most have received only minimal support, if any. Some have sold all the farm machinery and seed stocks to survive. Land has been left fallow. Two million black farm workers have been Executive Power: displaced, losing not only income but the community services such as schools, health clinics and housing that commercial farms provided. Under Zimbabwe’s constitution, the President is not accountable to parliament but wields wide ranging Post Colonial Land Reform powers including: The blatant inequities of Zimbabwe’s land ownership were a striking legacy of white minority rule. With the exception of hardline white colonials, few questioned the need for • appointing one fifth of the MPs (120 land reform. What has been condemned is not the principle but the chaotic, members of the legislature are elected, unconstitutional, racially divisive, violent and illegal process of farm seizures. the remaining 30 are Presidential appointments) The Zimbabwean opposition, UN, Commonwealth and others had called for a phased, • control of electoral law and processes sustainable and fully funded land reform programme providing training and adequate • delaying parliamentary legislation support to new small farmers and compensation to displaced farm workers and • and serves a 6 year term compared to commercial farm owners. Now the land reform process is so entwined with Mugabe’s parliament’s 5 years. attempts to maintain power that anyone speaking against farm seizures is labelled unpatriotic, suffering from a hangover of colonialism, or a stooge of western paymasters. Robert Mugabe has been Zimbabwe’s only President. On 8 June 2004, there were reports of plans to nationalise all Zimbabwean farmland by cancelling title deeds to productive land and replacing them with 99-year state-issued leases. “In the end all land shall be state land and there shall be no such thing as private land,” Land Reform Minister John Nkomo was quoted as saying (CNN 8/6/04). By 21 June, the government said that only land acquired by the state under land reform Issue 1, September 2004: Zimbawe in Crisis programmes, including white owned farmers seized over the last few years, was to be Editor: Liz Martyn nationalised (Associated Press 21/6/04).
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