HomeOld_PostsThe Struggle for Land in Zimbabwe (1890-2010)...Short exposes British hypocrisy

The Struggle for Land in Zimbabwe (1890-2010)…Short exposes British hypocrisy

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A critical outcome of Clare Short’s letter was the collapse of any private negotiations over land reform funding by the UK, writes Dr Felix Muchemwa in his book The Struggle for Land in Zimbabwe (1890-2010) that The Patriot is serialising.

The new British Labour Party Government
MEANWHILE, earlier in 1997, the new British Labour Party Government had stopped altogether the disbursement of moneys for the compensation of resettlement land by the Government.
Then, on November 5 1997, Britain’s Secretary of State for International Development, Miss Clare Short, proceeded to write to the Zimbabwean Minister of Agriculture and Lands, Cde Kumbirai Kangai, repudiating Britain’s colonial responsibility for land reform in Zimbabwe.
She wrote: “I should make it clear that we do not accept that Britain has a special responsibility to meet the costs of land purchase in Zimbabwe.
We are a new Government from diverse backgrounds without links to former colonial interests.
My own origins are Irish, and as you know, we were colonised not colonisers…
I am told there were discussions in 1989 and 1996 to explore the possibility of further assistance.
However, that is all in the past.” (New African, May 2007, p.69)
Short unilaterally cancelled everything agreed to by the US, the UK and the Patriotic Front of Zimbabwe in December 1979 at the Lancaster House Conference. Short cancelled the international agreement at the stroke of a pen!
She had forgotten that she was only a Minister in Her Majesty’s Service, a Minister under the British Crown, a Crown which had declared all land in Zimbabwe Crown Land, as a right of conquest in 1918. (Report of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, delivered the July 29 1918).
A critical outcome of Short’s letter was the collapse of any private negotiations over land reform funding by the UK.
Another outcome was also that it emboldened European settler-farmers, who, knowing the Zimbabwean Government would have no money to compensate them became more and more arrogant, challenging at will, any Government compulsory land acquisition in the Administrative or Higher Court.
The land invasions
In related developments, isolated land invasions had started to occur on European settler-farms as landless peasants and war veterans pressed for the redistribution of land from the settlers. War veterans and communal villagers invaded the European settler-farms surrounding the Svosve Tribal Trust Lands.
Those in the Mhondoro communal lands invaded farms in the Beatrice commercial farming area, south of Harare.
The targeted farms included Greenland Farm, Gwalia Farm, Alamen Farm and briefly, Geluki Farm which was abandoned as soon as the villagers realised that the farm was being contested in court.
Beatrice Police confirmed that the farm invaders were peaceful. (The Herald, September 7 1998, p.4)
Very few land invaders were violent.
Most of them only sang revolutionary songs.
Some even negotiated with the European settler-farm-owners on how much they were willing to share the land and co-exist with the farm invaders.
However, it was these invasions which were to ultimately force the hand of the Zimbabwe Government to take the decisive action to compulsorily acquire farms for redistribution to the landless people through the Fast Track Land Reform Programme. (Matondi-Hungwe 2006: p.72)
International Donors’ Conference
The International Donors’ Conference was held from September 9 to 11 1998.
The previous month, August 1998, President Mugabe had launched the Second Phase of the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme at Mt Pleasant Farm in Murehwa, Mashonaland East Province, where some 40 families had been allocated new land as beneficiaries. (The Herald, September 9 1998, p.9)
Delegates to the International Donors’ Conference included representatives from the UN Secretary-General, the EU, Australia, Canada, US, France, Denmark, Italy, Japan, China, Norway, UK, Sweden and NGOs including the UNDP. (The Herald, September 9 1998, p.1)
The Zimbabwe Government appealed for the over ZW$40 billion or US$6 billion to pay for the
5 000 000 hectares of land targeted for compulsory acquisition. (Stiff, 2000: P.297)
At the time of the conference, it was known that since independence in 1980, the Government of Zimbabwe had acquired only 3 600 000 hectares of land and resettled
71 000 African peasant families. (Makadho, 2006: p.171)
Further, it was also known that only 4 000 European settler-farmers still held more than 12 000 000 hectares of land. (The Herald, September 10 1998 p.1)
In his opening speech, President Mugabe emphasised the need for an orderly Land Reform Programme, cognisant of the real pressure the Government of Zimbabwe was facing from the communal people, their chiefs and the war vetarans. (The Herald, September 10 1998, p1)
The President also emphasised that the ZW$40 billion or US$6 billion was for the acquisition of the 5 000 000 hectares of land for the resettlement of 150 000 African families over a period of five years. (The Herald, September 10 1998 p.1)
The Donors’ Conference turned out to be a total failure, and the Zimbabwe Government accepted that position.
At the end of the three-day conference, the EU delegation and the rest of Western Europe (Britain, Norway, Sweden, German, Denmark, the Netherlands, etc) although supportive of the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme, pointed out that the Zimbabwe Government was being over ambitious in its plans for the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme, which, in the EU’s view, needed a longer period of implementation. (The Herald, September 10 1998, p.15)
Any hopes of success were, however, shattered when the US Ambassador, Tom McDonald, said that while his country recognised the need for land reform in Zimbabwe, it could not help financially as the laws of his country prohibited support to countries which compulsorily acquired land. (The Herald September 12 1998, p.1)
Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Thabo Mbeki, the Vice-President of South Africa, authorised by President Nelson Mandela, made a special appeal and met a few donors including, in particular, Britain, the EU and the World Bank (Stiff 425-6).
An agreement was reached to implement an inception phase framework plan for a two-year ‘learning by doing’ transition phase during which 1 000 000 hectares of land were to be acquired, funded by the World Bank and the British Government. (Hungwe p.150)
However, this too collapsed because in the end, the World Bank could not fund the project since the British Government insisted on the willing-buyer-willing-seller basis of land acquisition and would not recognise the legitimacy of any amendments to Zimbabwe’s Constitution and the Land Acquisition Act of 1992 which had established the legal framework for compulsory land acquisition by the Zimbabwe Government. (Hungwe p.150)
In the end, the donors failed to pledge any funds for the acquisition of land for resettlement purposes.
The overall position was that they would come in only after the Zimbabwe Government had acquired the land with its own financial resources. (The Herald, September 18 1998, p.8)

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