Zim’s repossessed farms no relief for new owners
MUTARE – Charles Samuriwo, a farmer from the Odzi area northwest of Mutare city, cannot hide his frustration.
As a beneficiary of Zimbabwe’s controversial programme to redistribute land taken from white farmers, Samuriwo has been working his tobacco farm since 2001.
Today he is struggling because 15 years after taking over the farm, he still has no security of tenure or title deed.
Without such collateral, he cannot borrow from a bank to buy machinery or pay for seasonal expenses such as seeds or fertiliser.
“As farmers, we have nothing but the land,” Samuriwo said.
“Financial institutions need a form of security for them to lend us money. We want to invest in irrigation, but without financial support we are not able to do that.”
His fears for the future have grown amid the severe, prolonged drought induced by the El Nino weather phenomenon that has hit southern Africa hard.
The worst drought to hit Zimbabwe in two decades has left many rural areas in the grip of hunger.
The World Food Programme estimates that around 4 million people in the country are struggling to meet their basic food needs.
To counter food insecurity, the government is importing maize from countries including Zambia, Ukraine, South Africa and Brazil after drought hit production.
Earlier this year, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe needed nearly $1.6-billion (R23-billion) to pay for grain and other food to feed millions of people.
Critics said the country’s once strong agricultural base has been damaged by the chaotic land redistribution programme.
In 2001, President Robert Mugabe introduced land reforms aimed at addressing colonial imbalances whereby a few white farmers owned most of the best agricultural land in Zimbabwe.
More than 4 000 farmers were forcibly evicted from their land in often violent struggles.
The violence, and allegations of rigged elections and rights abuses, led western donors to impose sanctions. The sanctions compounded an economic crisis that had worsened since the World Bank, IMF and African Development Bank suspended aid in 1999, after Zimbabwe defaulted on debts.
The source of insecurity for both farmers and banks lies with section 72 of the 2013 Constitution, which sets out the state’s rights and powers over agricultural land.
It says: “Land, right or interest may be compulsorily acquired by the state by notice published in the Gazette identifying the land, right or interest, whereupon the land, right or interest vests in the state with full title with effect from the date of publication of the notice.”
Even though the government moved in 2006 to offer 99-year land leases and permits to some farmers, banks have consistently refused to recognise these as secure collateral for loans.
To date, fewer than 200 of the leases have been issued.
In March, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya said he was confident the situation for farmers would improve once the “bankability” of the leases was finalised.
In a telephone interview, Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said there were still a “few issues” banks wanted addressed before they would accept the 99-year leases as collateral.
He was not at liberty to discuss these issues, he said, but a document would soon be presented to the cabinet for approval. –