- Dear Family and Friends,
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- Every day I travel 4 kilometres to take my son to school.
Sometimes by car and other times by bicycle we go along the road which
has become a muddy swamp with more potholes than flat surface as the rainy
season progresses. Richard's junior school is on the outskirts of the town
and just beyond it are smallholdings and plots which range in size from
4 to 22 acres. According to our Ministry of Agriculture these are known
as peri urban plots and for the last couple of months there has much been
much talk about the government of Zimbabwe acquiring peri urban plots to
make yet more land available. The little smallholdings beyond my son's
school are already largely owned by black Zimbabweans and from these little
pieces of land come fruit, vegetables, chickens, eggs and an array of bagged
and bottled home produce. Every day I see these plots and smallholdings
and wonder how much longer they will be there as the government just goes
on and on with its seizure of land.
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- This week our parliament pushed through amendments to
the land acquisition act. A legal parliamentary committee had clearly stated
that the amendments were unconstitutional and urged against their adoption.
The rights of Zimbabweans were apparently of no consequence because Zanu
PF ignored the recommendations and adopted the amendments anyway. With
President Mugabe's signature, the amendments will become law. One of the
amendments says that the government no longer has to serve the land owner
with a notice of acquisition, now it just has to state its intention to
take the land in the government gazette. The first that the land owner
or smallholder will know about the loss of their home, livelihood and land
will be when the men arrive at the gate.
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- This latest amendment to Zimbabwe's land seizures makes
the business of both large and small scale food production absolutely pointless
to title deed holders. It now makes no difference if you have planted a
hundred acre field with tobacco or a ten acre smallholding with fruit trees.
Either way there is no guarantee that you will be there in four months
or four years time to harvest your crop, so why bother. A few months ago
many traditional communal farmers sat idly under trees because they could
not afford to plough their land and plant a crop. Those small farmers said
it didn't matter anyway because when they were hungry the international
aid agencies would come and feed them. Those same international aid organisations
are now saying that the numbers of people needing food in Zimbabwe has
risen from five to seven and a half million - this in a country which only
has a population of 11.5 million.
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- As every season comes to an end and still we are starving,
there is always someone else to blame. First it was the whites, then the
west, then the banks and now, according to ZBC TV, the fault is with the
meteorological department. This week ZBC reported that new farmers were
accusing the Met Dept of giving inaccurate weather forecasts which had
resulted in farmers growing the wrong varieties of crops. The only blame
lies with our government. Those same laws that they created to stop white
Zimbabweans from growing food, they can use against black farmers and plot
holders who do not support them. Until title deeds are again respected
under law there will be hunger and hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. It is easy
to apportion blame and even easier to obey your own constitution Until
next week, with love, cathy. Copyright cathy buckle, 31st January 2004.
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- Please note that I am currently unable to access mails
sent to my Mango address and have temporarily reverted to <mailto:cbuckle@zol.co.zw>cbuckle@zol.co.zw
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