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. Zimbabwe: 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 Masvingo Province. It is located 3 kms from the Chirundu-Beitbridge 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- (Mwenezi district 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-Chiredzi road. The negative aspects of land deals, this study also village is in Chipinge 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 South Africa 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 biofuel 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 Billy Rautenbach. 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 Robert Mugabe’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 (Chipinge district) • 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