Economic Impact of Land Reform in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe farmer workers in Nyamzura in Odzi. The earnings on production increased in 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

Economic impact of land reforms in Zim

December 20, 2013
Opinion & Analysis
Pranjal Bajaj
Zimbabwe Herald

Having often travelled to Zimbabwe since 2003 and during my intermittent stay there I never found an issue which aroused more passions than land reforms.

A mere reference to land reforms in Zimbabwe raised eyebrows.

World media demonised Zimbabwe and the fast-track land reforms which were initiated in 1999. The land reform programme was described as illegal and a failure. Most of the available literature has measured success or failure of land reforms in Zimbabwe in terms of numbers such as the quantity of crop production, GDP, per capita income before and after reforms, etc.

In this essay I have mentioned my personal experiences during my travel in urban and rural Zimbabwe. I have given a summary of information I gathered on the history and status of land issue from my interactions with farmers, educationists, workers, businessmen, and books and journals on the subject.

However, I feel that an extremely important perspective of land reforms which could have long-term and sustained benefits for Zimbabwe is missing and not much work has been done to study this aspect. I think that in order to measure the success of land reform, we need to go beyond statistics of crop production, per capita income and GDP numbers.

Changes in human capability, spread of agricultural education and introduction of democratic practice in rural society etc are extremely important indicators of the success of land reforms. Such changes have the potential of transforming Zimbabwe to its status as the bread basket of Southern Africa or may be the whole of Africa. In the coming months and before joining college, I plan to study how the freedom of action gained by ordinary farmers and small entrepreneurs, and sense of dignity gained by ordinary Zimbabweans due to ownership of land can translate into long-term economic benefits. I would like to explore the missing links which has led to such positive changes going unnoticed and why these positive changes could not be exploited for economic growth.

As a teenager I could not buy Pizza with a billion Zimbabwean dollars in my pocket in 2008. I was overwhelmed when I touched one single currency note of one Trillion Zimbabwean dollars after being sent by my father’s cotton company to his ginning factory in Sanyati, Zimbabwe to buy seed cotton from contracted farmers. Shop shelves were almost empty and attendants had to change prices twice a day for whatever little items they had on shelves. Long queues at automated teller machines (ATMs) were a common feature due to cash shortages and controlled minimum daily cash withdrawal limits. People virtually ran directly from ATMs to shops to convert all money into goods or into US dollars. Although street trading of Zimbabwean dollar to the US dollar was illegal, it was widely prevalent on the streets. As a result of cash shortages, the banks could not supply enough cash to companies.

My father’s company, because of the nature of its business, which involved buying seed cotton from rural farmers for cash, had to withdrew Zimbabwean dollars cash direct from Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe vaults and it was transported to rural areas for buying cotton in gunny sacks in big 4×4 vehicles.

The exchange rate changed by the minute and Zimbabwean dollar’s parity to US dollar was the hottest topic everywhere. A visit to Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe building left me bewildered as I had never seen such an artistically designed beautiful building ever in India for a Government office. The Governor’s office was plush and decorated with best upholstery perhaps reminding the visitors of rich heritage of this beautiful country.

I travelled a lot to Sanyati and Mount Darwin where my father had factories for cotton ginning and manufacturing of refined cooking oil. I also travelled with my father to Victoria Falls and Nyanga for weekend excursions.

While my father took meetings in his two factories I had time to discuss with many amongst the hundreds of workers at factory and with large number of farmers who came to deliver seed cotton.

With the high literacy and fluency of English in Zimbabwe it provided an excellent opportunity to exchange views with the ordinary Zimbabwean people. Due to the prevailing hyperinflation between the year 2000 and 2008 salaries and wages were worth nothing by the end of the week or month.

In most cases by time they were paid, the wage could not buy them even a bottle of refined cooking oil which they produced at the factory.

Farmers would either walk from long distances or cycle to the factory as there was no public transport due to acute shortage of diesel and petrol. They came just to inform the buying office at the factory that they have cotton bales in their field to be picked up and transported or they came to get their adjustment price.

The factory usually ran on diesel generators as the areas could go for days without electricity. The diesel was imported in bulk tankers by factory directly from South Africa as it was not available in Zimbabwe.

Despite all these problems none of the farmers or workers appeared angry even though they were surely extremely unhappy. No one was complaining bitterly and on the contrary they seemed to accept their plight as something inevitable.

Coming from India where most people have little patience even to stand in queue I was amazed to observe great resilience of Zimbabweans in these very serious hardships. I had experienced huge public protests in India on small issues such as temporary water shortages, but no one indulged in any such activity in Zimbabwe.

I was suprised when I read overseas reports in newspapers and internet sites of violent demonstrations in the country. I wondered why I had not seen any violent reactions to such hardships during my stay in Zimbabwe. I used to travel very frequently not only in Harare but in deep rural areas with my father so I could not have missed those violent incidences, if some serious protest or violence had taken place.

Sometimes I reached Sanyati with my father at 11.30 pm on winter night in May or June from Harare or Gokwe but there was no fear of facing any violence or getting mugged.

I was startled. Why so much hardship? Why extraordinary hyperinflation? Why one single currency note of a trillion dollars? Why so long queues at ATMs? Why empty shelves? Why on earth are people not rioting or protesting on streets even in light of such misery?

Once I saw a farmer in Gokwe, who had a farm right across the road from our guest house where I was staying, kissing his land every morning upon reaching his farm. He came everyday to pluck cotton and pack it in woolpacks. I asked him why he was kissing the earth every day? He said the joy of owning this piece of land was so overwhelming that the pain of economic sufferings is not being felt with as much intensity as outsiders like me would expect.

When I met more farmers the story was repeated.

I was amazed and my curiosity led me to study the reasons and the whole issue of land reforms in Zimbabwe slowly unfolded before me. During visits to University of Zimbabwe to meet professors and researchers and learn the history of land issue in Zimbabwe, I came to know about serious complexities in legal ownership status of colonised land of Zimbabwe. I also read about this issue on internet as well as in some books and magazines available there. I came to know that after the Privy Council decided in 1918 that British Crown owns the land of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), a Land Apportionment Act was passed in 1930. This Act became the basis of land allocation on racial basis. The families were moved from one place to the other on basis of colour of skin and zones for whites were created in central plateau of Zimbabwe.

Such white only zones were more fertile and had better rainfall. The indigenous people were sent to low rainfall areas with poor soils.

This is the first part of articles on the land reform researched and written by Pranjal Bajaj (18).