Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe along with First Lady Grace. She made a powerful and defiant speech calling for the continuation of ZANU-PF rule in this southern African nation.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
By Southern Times Writer 05-11-2010
Harare - Zimbabwe's traditional leaders want President Robert Mugabe to be President for life.
The chiefs passed the resolution their annual conference in the resort town of Kariba.
Local Government, Urban and Rural Development Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo said the chiefs took the decision in recognition of Mugabe's outstanding leadership.
Chombo, who attended the congress, said the chiefs also cited the President's immense contribution to the preservation and development of traditional leadership.
'The chiefs have passed a resolution that they want President Mugabe to continue leading the country because they appreciate his leadership qualities and achievements,' he said.
'The President has continued to support the role of chiefs when other African countries have done away with chiefs.
'They were also satisfied that the President recognises that chiefs are crucial to national development.'
The minister said the decision to back President Mugabe as the country's supreme leader was unanimous.
He said this was ample evidence that the traditional leaders regarded Mugabe as a special leader.
All chiefs from the eight rural provinces endorsed their unequivocal support for Mugabe.
Harare and Bulawayo which are also provinces, do not have traditional chiefs.
Chombo said delegates also acknowledged that Mugabe continued to ably lead the country despite the imposition of illegal economic sanctions by the West.
'The chiefs appreciate the fact that despite 10 years of sanctions and hostility from the West, President Mugabe has remained defiant in propagating polices that are beneficial to indigenous Zimbabweans,' he said.
The traditional leaders also made it clear that they were ready for elections, saying the inclusive Government creates conflicting sources of power.
'The chiefs said they do not want the GPA (Global Political Agreement) to exceed its tenure,' the minister said.
'They said the unity Government has created conflicting sources of power and this creates disharmony in the running of the State.
'They want one source of power, which is led by President Mugabe.'
Zim land reform not a failure
By Southern Times Writer 05-11-2010
Harare - A new study has dismissed the wildly held belief that Zimbabwe's landmark but controversial land reform programme was a tale of unmitigated disaster of a total failure.
To the contrary, the study argues, that the programme has succeeded in empowering a people.
On 7 November 2000, the Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled that the government's fast-track land reform programme was illegal. However, the controversial policy – which had seen large areas of Zimbabwe's commercial farmland invaded by land-hungry villagers led by war veterans – continued unabated. In the 10 years since, the accepted wisdom that land reform in Zimbabwe has been a tale of unmitigated disaster has remained unquestioned.
Images of chaos, destruction and violence have dominated the coverage.
Now, a new and important study into the controversial policy and its effects, challenges this view.
Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities, by Professor Ian Scoones, of the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, together with Zimbabwean colleagues, Nelson Marongwe, Blasio Mavedzenge, Felix Murimbarimba, Jacob Mahenehene and Chrispen Sukume, looks in detail at the story of land reform in Masvingo province.
This book provides the first full account of the consequences of these dramatic events. Land reform over turned a century-old pattern of land use, one dominated by a small group of large-scale commercial farmers, many of whom were white.
But what replaced it?
Through the examination of the field data from Masvingo province, the book challenges the myths surrounding land reform; in particular, that Zimbabwean land reform has been a total failure, that its beneficiaries have been largely political 'cronies', that there is no investment in the new resettlements, that agriculture is in ruins and the rural economy has collapsed.
The authors found that:
· Agriculture in Zimbabwe is NOT now in complete ruins, creating chronic food insecurity
· Zimbabwe's rural economy has NOT collapsed as a result of land reform
· It is NOT just Zimbabwe's political cronies who have benefited form the reforms
Zimbabwe's Land Reform: Myths and Realities presents the story as it has been observed on the ground: warts and all.
What comes through is that there is no single, simple story of the Zimbabwe land reform as sometimes assumed by press reports, political commentators, or indeed much academic study.
As Zimbabwe moves forward with a new agrarian structure, one that banishes the inheritance of colonialism to history, the authors – while not downplaying the violence, abuses and patronage that have occurred – argue that a more balanced appraisal of the land reform policy is needed.
While there have clearly been failures, there have also been successes. For example, the book shows:
Although production of wheat, tobacco, coffee, tea and maize has declined, other crops, such as small grains, edible beans and cotton, have increased or remained steady.
In the new resettlements, a core group of 'middle farmers' are generating surpluses.
There is substantial agricultural production, including surpluses, on smallholder farms.
Schools have been built, roads cut and dams dug through the efforts of new settlers.
A dynamic entrepreneurialism has been unleashed in rural areas.
No comments:
Post a Comment