Mugabe has spoilt ‘jewel of Africa’
Due to the climate – atmospheric and political – Zimbabwe, the former bread basket of the continent, now begs other countries for maize, writes Welshman Ncube
THOSE of us who grew up in Rhodesia knew from an early age that the foundational pillars of the strength of the Rhodesian economy lay in agriculture, mining and manufacturing.
So strong was Rhodesia’s agriculture, whatever could be said of its racist outlook in respect of land ownership and control, that I, just like most middle-aged Zimbabweans, grew up on a generous diet of state “propaganda” that our country “is the bread basket of Africa”.
Thus both in Rhodesia and the first one and half decades of independence, we took it for granted that not only could we feed ourselves, we could also feed the region and to some extent the larger world. Accordingly in 1980, the late president Julius Nyerere of Tanzania was able to say to then-prime minister Robert Mugabe that: “You have inherited the jewel of Africa, please take care not to spoil it.” Spoil it he has. The truth is that Rhodesia and the “early part” of Zimbabwe produced millions of tons of grain and horticulture products. Even during the worst droughts, our silos would carry sufficient grain reserves to take us through to the next rainy season. The country boasted of hardworking rural citizens routinely accorded “master farmer” status, with critical knowledge imparted by committed agriculture extension officers.
How is it that a country once famous for exporting excess grain to the region is now begging for maize and wheat from Zambia, Malawi and South Africa? Who is culpable for this spectacular fall from agricultural grace? Why is there so much agricultural disequilibrium now more than before?
The answers are embedded in one word: climate – both atmospheric and political.
Irrefutable evidence exists that the atmospheric climate I grew up under in the 1960s and 1970s has drastically changed, for the worse. Climate researchers in various government departments have proof that Zimbabwe’s rainy seasons are now shorter with longer dry spells.
The political and governance climate like atmospheric climate is also a cause of food insecurity in Zimbabwe.
For all his political transgressions, Ian Smith and his Rhodesia Front had mastered the art of food production.
The colonialists had demarcated our country into three distinct agricultural regions – rural, smallholder and commercial farming areas. It is true that our parents, though classified as peasants, produced enough maize to diligently deliver to the nearest government silos.
But our country’s bread-basket status was secured by more organised, intensive, title-supported, bankable, irrigation-based commercial farming.
In fact, economists agreed that the strength of Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product lay in the country’s agro-based industry. Factories, engineering companies, retailers and banking services relied heavily on the value chain of agriculture.
President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party had been content in the comfort of disputed land tenure as their political hegemony was virtually uncontested. As long as industrialists and commercial farmers did not interfere with Zanu-PF political dominance, the property rights scene and political temperature remained stable. But all that changed when the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) came into the political arena. But how did this affect our country’s bread-basket status?
That the land ownership and control structure patterns which existed in the country up to 2000 were unsustainable, unfair and unjust is incontestable. That justice and fairness needed to be brought to bear thereon is equally indisputable. At some point, and through some policy process and intervention, commercial agriculture had to be democratised.
What I have always contested is the crude methodology, warped logic and vindictive nature of Mugabe’s fast-track land reform programme from 2000 which obliterated the agricultural sector. This is why Zimbabwe can no longer cope with negative effects of climate change.
Millions of peasant farmers resettled in previously title-secure commercial farms received virtually no meaningful support to become successful farmers. Some of them had no skills and resources of their own to produce grain. Five thousand white commercial farmers who were rendered homeless abandoned agriculture and left for other countries with their skills. Their unpaid farming debts crippled the banking sector. Fertiliser and tractor companies heavily dependent on the agriculture value chain were liquidated, so were engineering companies. The collapse of agricultural production in a country whose manufacturing sector was/is essentially founded on agri-based industries inevitably led to the collapse of manufacturing. In one stroke, two of the pillars of the country’s economy were mortally wounded by the political climate actions of Zanu-PF.
Former white Zimbabwean citizens expelled by Mugabe are performing farming wonders in Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and Nigeria. What these countries have in common is their respect for property rights. This year, Zimbabwe will have to import almost 1 million tons of grain from some of those countries because we can no longer produce 3 million tons to feed ourselves. Of course, Zanu-PF propaganda lays all the blame on climate change and “Western sanctions”, but why has climate change not affected Zambia?
Mugabe has travelled extensively around the world, costing our treasury well over $60 million (R834m). His minister and their officials still drive the latest Western cars. Zimbabweans import $54 billion worth of goods each year. Members of Zanu-PF send their children to colleges overseas. Sanctions, what sanctions?
For the record, this is what has happened to the agricultural production.
Maize production fell from a peak of 2 million tons in the year 2000 to just over 500 000 tons last year; wheat from a peak of just over 300 000 tons in 2001 to less than 10 000 tons last year; coffee from 10 000 tons in 1998 to about 1 000 tons last year; beef from a peak of just under 160 000 tons in 1991 to about 25 000 tons by last year; milk from a peak of 250 million litres in 1991 to about 50 million litres. As a result, the country’s food imports multiplied almost seven-fold between the year 2000 and now, although pre-2000 tobacco production has been restored in the past three years.
There was need to redress the situation where 15 million arable hectares were in few hands. The MDC does not agree with land reform which removes the right to due process, negates constitutionalism and legality, abandons the principles of the rule of law and is implemented in a manner that negates the right to work and effectively renders jobless previously employed citizens.
This is the picture of land reform as implemented from 2000 up to now. The result: Zimbabwe’s international isolation; a drastic decline of our agricultural output as per the aforementioned statistics; 2 million citizens under constant threat of starvation; an annual $700m food import bill; 300 000 unemployed former farmworkers; 5 000 white citizens deprived of their property under a law which abrogated due process; massive deforestation in former commercial farms; a 90 percent increase in wildlife poaching resulting in the virtual decimation of what had become a growing and lucrative sector of game farming; a 60 percent collapse of agro-based industries and related job losses pointing towards 90 percent formal unemployment; millions of children displaced from “proper” rural to makeshift farm schools.
To add insult to injury, only a few hundred politically connected cronies each own more than five state-given farms with access to unlimited farming inputs.
Thousands of peasants in former commercial farms have no access to finance or security other than an “offer letter”.
Zimbabwe needs a full land audit managed by the new land commission being empowered to rationalise land tenurial systems, land use, expose corruption in land allocation and ensure justice and fairness in land acquisition, allocation and use. Where possible, all commercial farming land will be restored to the property market so that deserving citizens get title deeds.
The current rendering of land into dead capital is clearly unsustainable and against the national interest.
Welshman Ncube, senior legal academic and advocate at Zimbabwe’s bar, was the founding secretary-general of the Movement for Democratic Change before the party split in 2000. He is now president of the much smaller MDC
Zanu-PF lays all blame on climate change and Western sanctions