Member News
By Ben Moody - 27th November 2009
The main beneficiaries of Zimbabwe's so-called land reform programme are not poor, landless peasants but those well-connected to the Mugabe regime, a meeting of an all-party parliamentary group was told this week.
Gertrude Hambara, general secretary of the General Agricultural and Plant Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) told the APPG for Zimbabwe that violent farm evictions in Zimbabwe benefit only a "rich, political elite and Mugabe cronies".
In contrast to the image portrayed by the Mugabe regime, Ms Hambara reported that a number of "grabbers" own five to ten farms already.
Ms Hambara spoke to the APPG on Wednesday as a guest of the trade union UNITE.
At the meeting, chaired by Kate Hoey (Lab, Vauxhall), she reported that the power-sharing deal between Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF and Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has not halted violent farm evictions.
Ms Hambara said the land reform programme has now displaced approximately 350,000 farm workers, a number that rises to two million people when their families are included in the count.
These families now face increasingly difficult circumstances. In addition to losing their homes and employment, evicted workers lacking a fixed address also lose the ability to register to vote. Many end up as poorly-paid roaming workers. Vast numbers have emigrated to South Africa where they live and work in poor conditions.
Ms Hambara also discussed the extent of hyperinflation before the recent adoption of the US dollar, and displayed a number of Zimbabwean $100 million notes to the APPG.
She reported that dollarisation has brought inflation down, but has created a dual economy whereby those without access to US dollars cannot access foodstuffs and basic medical supplies. Even those in work are paid as little as $10 per month.
In response to questions at the end of the talk, Ms Hambara said that the MDC needed to move into rural communities before they become 'no-go areas'.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd