After 40 years of inertia, land reform is still troubled Zimbabwe’s big problem
Governments the world over battle to devise successful models for landless people to move meaningfully into agriculture. Zimbabwe is no exception, writes Beverly L Peters
Almost 40 years since independence, land reform is still at the heart of Zimbabwe’s political and economic challenges. But perhaps more so than with any other issue in Zimbabwe, the approach of government and the international community has been one of inertia. Governments throughout the world have found it hard to devise economically successful land-tenure models that incorporate landless populations meaningfully into food and cash crop production. Zimbabwe is no exception. In the old Southern Rhodesia, the development of the settler agricultural economy was based on widespread expropriation of land and forced removal of native populations to reserves. Settler populations maintained access to the best land in the colony, where land holdings were based on colour and ethnicity. Southern Rhodesia’s Land Apportionment Act of 1930 reserved 50% of land in the country for white settlers, 30% for Africans, and 20% for commercial companies and the colonial government. This set the stage for...
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