Stir The Pot

TOMORROW, the Sadc region in an extraordinary solidarity and for the second year running will be demanding that Western economic sanctions against Zimbabwe be unconditionally lifted. This is a huge statement and gesture from the region, but Zimbabweans remain split on the issue and are still worlds apart despite the economic and social havoc the sanctions have wrought on the country.

At the turn of the century, Zimbabwe embarked on revolutionary land reform programme — a programme that saw a massive seven million hectares expropriated from white commercial farmers for resettlement of landless blacks.

The land question was one of the unfulfilled agreements reached at the 1979 Lancaster House independence conference. The United Kingdom (UK) had undertaken to fund the land reform programme and was supported by the United States.

However, the Lancaster House agreement had sunset clauses — clauses that controlled how long the transfer of land should take and that whites for the first seven years of independence had reserved 20 seats in the National Assembly. Land was to be bought on a willing seller, willing buyer basis.

The process was slow and frustrating, enraging many who had fought in the armed liberation struggle who started accusing their leaders of selling out or getting closer to the former colonisers.

The Zimbabwean government acquired about three million hectares of land in the first decade of independence with financial support from the UK.

The restless peasants and veterans of the struggle in 1998 started invading