The Bitter Reality Of Mugabe's Land Grab
Land Grab Farmer Evicted - Again
Land Grab Proving Costly To Government
Land Grab Focuses On Remaining Few Farmers
The drams of reality show
When Mugabe, in a fit of pique in early 2000, ordered that the war veterans and the youth militia to begin the destructive and violent land grab in Zimbabwe, he sold the idea to them by stating that it was overdue and aimed at redressing the land tenure imbalance. He told them that the land would be returned to the 'landless' blacks and that Zimbabwe was for the black Zimbabweans only.
This is the motivation that he has trotted out for the last ten years, even though he has proved himself to be a liar since the start of the land appropriation.
The land has, to the very large extent, no been given to the 'landless' blacks, but has been handed to Mugabe's nearest and dearest, given to his loyalists and apologist and others were taken over by members of the security forces.
The land remains largely unworked as those who now 'own' it, keep the farms as a 'keepsake' and know nothing of agriculture. But, since Mugabe says that the land programme is irreversible, they intend to keep it for as long as they can.
A few of the veterans and militia were given lesser quality land, but with very little experience in farming and even less inputs provided by their government, the situation on the ground (excuse the pun) is becoming the harsh reality of life in Mugabe's Zimbabwe.
"Muza Fredrick’s desperate situation hardly makes him recognisable as one of the vanguards of President Robert Mugabe’s often violent land reform that has seen politically linked chefs enjoying rich pickings.
Now in his early 30s, Fredrick says he was part of the youth corps who were at the forefront of eviction that began in 2000, rampaging from farm to farm to displace white commercial farmers who were forced to make way for beneficiaries of the land reform programme.
Today, living on handouts, Fredrick's life has become a daily struggle for survival at Insingisi Farm near Bindura, about 80km North-East of Harare. The returns promised by politicians who encourages him in the invasion have not materialised and he lives a pauper's life.
Fredrick and his friends say they have been reduced to casual labourers by Dick Mafios, the new owner who they helped grab the farm. He now pays them US$1,30 a day for occasional jobs.
Mafios, the ZANU PF provincial chairman for Mashonaland Central, is related to Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment minister and MP for Mount Darwin, Saviour Kasukuwere."
It has taken less than ten years for Mugabe to totally ruin the productive agricultural sector in Zimbabwe, and huge swathes of people need feeding as the country is unable to satisfy their hunger.
The big wigs dine on caviar and drink the finest wines, whilst the people of Zimbabwe are lucky if they eat one meal a day - and they are forced to live in abject poverty, some of them living in holes in the ground.
This is the 'new' Zimbabwe, the 'liberated' Zimbabwe - and the people have only one man to thank for their fate.
Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
"We arrived in Bindura in 2000 after some politicians approached us and requested that we help them grab land from white farmers," said Fredrick, explaining how he ended up in his situation. "You know that this was the time when we started taking our land and occupying it."
"They said 'boys comes and help us take land from the white farmers' and this is when we joined in from Mt Darwin in our hundred as youths. We were excited and the promise was that we would also get pieces of land which we could farm on," Fredrick told the Zimbabwe Independent last week, likening his situation to a hunting dog that is denied the right to even eat the skin of its prey.
"As years went by, no land was given to us until now. If we try to raise our concerns we are told that the bosses are also struggling as they don't have the inputs and so forth. Besides, we will never be taken seriously because the foreman lives in such squalid conditions."
I suppose I really should feel sorry for the youth that find themselves in a very difficult situation, but, as they say in the classics, if you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas.
The truth is that Mugabe lied to the people, lied to the war veterans and the youth militia. And now they are discovering the truth for themselves.
Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man
