New Zimbabwe Lecture Series THE SCOURGE OF POLITICAL PATRONAGE: AN ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE PROGRAMME FOR LAND REFORM IN THE NEW ZIMBABWE Dale Dor

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New Zimbabwe Lecture SeriesTHE SCOURGE OF
POLITICAL PATRONAGE AN ECONOMICALLY
SUSTAINABLE PROGRAMME FOR LAND REFORM IN THE NEW
ZIMBABWEDale Doré

• RETHINKING LAND REFORM AND ITS AFTERMATH
• IS THE ZIMBABWE LAND REFORM SUSTAINABLE AS A
  POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PROCESS?
• Crowne Plaza Monomotapa, Harare20th of March 2007

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The fundamental principles of land reform

• To resolve the historical imbalance of land
  ownership
• To pay compensation to those whose farms have
  been acquired, and
• To ensure a fair, transparent and economically
  sustainable resettlement process

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Objective of presentation

• To meet the objectives of a just, transparent
  and economically sustainable land reform
  programme requires a shift
• from a political narrative based on lost lands
  to
• an economic programme based on secure property
  rights and the development of a land market.

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The political narrative of lost lands

• White settlers stole the land from the indigenous
  black population. Since the land was stolen, it
  cannot be bought from those who stole it
  (whites), nor should it be paid for by those who
  receive it (blacks).
• The state is the custodian of land on behalf of
  all black Zimbabweans. The state, represented by
  the President, is entrusted to distribute land
  fairly and equitably to the poorest and most
  deserving black Zimbabweans.

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Key elements of a sustainable economic land
reform programme

• Land is a finite economic resource that must be
  used to its full potential by ensuring
• That it should be utilised by those with the best
  farming skills, training and experience
• Farmers should have secure property rights that
  can be used as collateral for loans to make farm
  investments and purchase inputs
• That land transfers should take place through a
  market mechanism.

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Outline of presentation

• The political narrative
• An unsustainable land reform model
• Securing political control over farmland
• The new custodians of lost lands
• Land distribution and political patronage
• Opportunity costs of Fast Track Programme

• The economic alternative
• Property rights promote investment, productivity
• Land transfers through the market
• Misgiving about a market-assisted approaches
• Socially responsible land market
• Dissolving the dual agrarian economy

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The political narrative is based on a
economically unsustainable land reform model

• A massive fiscal gap must inevitably open up as
  the government has to pay more and more for land
  at market prices and give it away free.
• To secure the supply of land to meet its populist
  political agenda the government is forced to
  seize and control land through racist policies
  and a series of unjust laws, and
• To maintain its grip on power the ruling party
  has to buy loyalty from powerful interest groups
  war veterans, the military, civil servants,
  politicians and business people by rationing an
  infinite demand for land.

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The process of securing farmland before 2000

• Constitutional Amendment No.11 (1990) states that
  compensation would no longer be based on adequate
  and prompt payment, but on fair payment within a
  reasonable time.
• The Land Acquisition Act (1992) drops willing
  buyer- willing seller principle and allows
  compulsorily acquisition of farms to speed up
  resettlement.
• Constitutional amendment No. 13 (1993) prevents
  farmers seeking redress through the courts for
  unfair compensation.
• In 1997 Mugabe declares We are going to take
  the land and we are not going to pay for the
  soil.
• The governments draft constitution includes
  clause 57, which states that Britain is
  responsible for paying compensation for land
  compulsorily acquired for resettlement.

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The process of securing farmland after 2000

• When the people of Zimbabwe rejected the draft
  constitution in a referendum in February 2000,
  Mugabe pushed through Constitutional Amendment
  (No. 16) that restated the lost lands narrative
  and that Britain was obliged to pay compensation
  for land compulsorily acquired for resettlement.
• In Land Acquisition Amendment Act (2003) declares
  that the government would no longer be bound by
  the criteria laid down by the Fast Track
  Programme, allowing the government to seize the
  land of the remaining whites who only owned one
  farm, plantations, agro-industrial property,
  export processing zones and wildlife
  conservancies. It also states that the government
  intended to acquire a minimum of 11 million
  hectares. (In 1998, only derelict,
  underutilised, multiple and foreign-owned land
  and land next to communal areas was eligible for
  acquisition.)
• The Acquisition of Farm Equipment and Materials
  Act (2004) provides for the seizure of the
  evicted farmers equipment and material.
• Constitutional Amendment (No. 17) of 2005,
  section 16B, nationalises all land that had been
  identified for resettlement in a preliminary
  notice (Section 5 notice).
• The Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act
  (2006), makes it illegal for farmers to remain on
  their farms (state land) without a lease from
  government.
• Virtually no compensation is paid. As the ruling
  party assumes political control over a key
  economic resource on which 70 percent of the
  population depends, it also controls their
  livelihoods and their liberty.

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The new custodians of lost lands

• The objectives of the Intensive Resettlement
  Programme (1985) were to decongest the communal
  areas by resettling the landless, unemployed and
  master farmers.
• By 1998 the beneficiaries also included
  ex-combatants, displaced farm workers, women, as
  well as persons of means and ability who wanted
  to farm.
• When the Fast Track Programme was implemented the
  aim was also to indigenise commercial farming.
  All Zimbabweans were eligible to become A2
  farmers if they showed proof of experience and/or
  resources.
• The custodians of stolen land are no longer the
  landless and unemployed, but every Zimbabwe. Two
  things happen
• The political demand for land becomes infinite,
  which the government which controls land - can
  allocate to the chosen few.
• The rich, powerful and well connected party
  loyalists will muscle their way to the front of
  the queue for free land.

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Land redistribution and political patronage

• As the resettlement of landless blacks slowed
  only 10,000 families were resettled in the 1990s
  land allocations to the ruling elite soared.
• In 1994, a scandal erupted with the publication
  that land acquired for resettlement had been
  distributed to senior government officials,
  including ministers and military officers.
• By 1999, 400,000 hectares of state-acquired land
  had been leased to numerous senior government
  officials and army officers, politicians and
  business people.
• In 2000, government security services orchestrate
  land invasions known as jambanga and in 2001
  settlement targets are set for operation 40 days
  and 40 nights. A1 settler selection is based
  purely on ruling party loyalists seizing land.
• The Flora Bukas Report (2003) listed 30 senior
  army and police officers, ministers and members
  of parliament, and senior party officials who
  owned more than one farm, often by displacing
  poor and newly settled A1 farmers.
• the Utete Committee Report (2003) found that,
  The multiplicity of allocating authorities
  gave rise to double allocations, multiple
  allocations, and favouritism in land
  allocations.

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Opportunity costs of the Fast Track Programme

• Opportunity cost is the cost of choosing a less
  efficient alternative that is, unskilled A1 and
  A2 occupiers based on political patronage
• Agricultural production foregone production
  halved and large swathes of land remained
  unutilised
• Training foregone 25 year of agricultural
  training and experience are wasted by settling
  untrained, unskilled and inexperienced new
  farmers
• Inputs foregone Z2.09 trillion was spent on
  new farmers in 2004, and less than 40 of loans
  were repaid
• Redistribution methods foregone Lengthy, costly,
  bureaucratic methods of administrative land
  acquisition and allocation
• Communal land development foregone huge
  expenditure on resettlement sidelines on pro-poor
  programme and poverty alleviation in communal
  areas.

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An economically sustainable land reform programme
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Secure property rights promote investment,
productivity and liberty

• The ability to use land as collateral to secure
  loans for farm investments and inputs
• Land is vested in the people themselves, so they
  cannot be held hostage to politicians or chiefs
• The prime task of the Land Commission will be to
  put land back into the hands of genuine farmers.

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Land transfers through the market

• Land is treated as a finite resource whose supply
  is limited
• Demand is limited by the price farmers are
  prepared to pay for access to land (as an
  economic resource)
• Land is transferred (allocated, bought and sold)
  through a land market
• Direct payments are made by the beneficiary or
  buyer to the person whose land has been acquired
  or wishes to sell

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Misgiving about a market-assisted approaches to
land reform

• Rich elites will hold land speculatively
• The rich will buy up land, leaving others
  landless and destitute
• Small farmers will not be able to afford farms
• Private land ownership is alien to African
  culture

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A socially responsible land market

• A legal and institutional framework
• A land market can be controlled to protect the
  poor by attaching certain rights and conditions
  on registered land, such as size, consolidation,
  subdivision, sale, rent, tax, and so on.
• A land tax will
• suppress the price of land and reduce its
  speculative value
• encourage subdivision and, hence, smaller and
  more affordable farms
• ensure it is more efficiently and fully utilised
• raise revenue
• Support for new farmers
• Where farmers have demonstrated that they have
  the training, skills or experience to farm, they
  could apply for special government packages to
  buy farms, including generous loans, with low
  interest rates and generous repayment schedules.
• Cultural sensitivities
• In 1994 the ZFU stated that a land tenure system
  based on individual ownership is the only system
  that assures that individuals develop a long term
  perspective to land utilisation and development.
  

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Structural agrarian transformation

• Structural transformation is a stylised fact of
  development, whereby an ever greater share of GDP
  is generated by the manufacturing and service
  sectors. It is therefore premised on
  macro-economic stability, an open economy and the
  attraction of direct foreign investment.
• It is the process by which people living in the
  rural areas take up employment opportunities in
  towns and cities, thus relieving pressure on
  agricultural land (decongestion).
• A land market will facilitate this process by
• allowing people to realise the value of their
  rural land for other assets
• leaving more land to fewer genuine farmers to
  make a decent livelihood from their agricultural
  expertise
• encouraging the subdivision of large properties
  and the consolidation of small properties to
  break the insidious dual economy and create a
  more egalitarian agrarian structure.

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Transformation of the communal areas

• Commercialisation
• The promotion of high value crops in the
  smallholder sector through contract growing,
  out-grower schemes and syndication.
• Land tenure reform
• The gradual introduction of land tenure reforms
  to unlock the collateral value of land to promote
  more efficient agricultural production but only
  within a framework of democratic participation
  and the informed consent of communities.
• Poverty alleviation
• Government and international assistance can focus
  on pro-poor programmes and projects, safety nets,
  and the building of physical and social
  infrastructure to ensure the livelihoods and well
  being of the poorest and most vulnerable
  households.

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Conclusion

• To a brutalised and impoverished people yearning
  for peace, it is understandable that some believe
  that a just, transparent and economically
  sustainable programme is beyond our reach.
• This would be a tragic mistake. Peace cannot be
  bought by sacrificing justice.
• We must start thinking now of how we will peal
  away layer upon layer of unjust and senseless
  legislation that has stripped Zimbabweans of
  their constitutional rights, their human rights
  and dignity, and their property rights.
• We should start thinking now of how to
  reconstruct simple, clear and concise
  constitutional provisions and protections, as
  well as land and agricultural legislation on
  which
• to construct a way forward that restores full
  agricultural productivity
• is founded on justice and the rule of law
• and that brings economic and social recovery for
  the benefit of all Zimbabweans.

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Email address

• If anyone would like a copy of this presentation
  please contract me at
• daledore_at_zol.co.zw