The African Land Issue: …the untold story The case of Zimbabwe and South Africa

1
The African Land Issue the untold storyThe
case of Zimbabwe and South Africa

• African Axis Presentation Series 2 (September
  2000)
• By Vincent Okele

2
Agenda

• The Zimbabwe Land issue Chronology
• Background Information/ Pre-Independence / At
  Independence / Post-Independence
• The South African Land issue Chronology
• Background Information/ Pre-Independence / At
  Independence / Post-Independence
• Commonalities
• Debate

3
Zimbabwe
4
Zimbabwe Background Information
Land use arable land 7
permanent crops 0 permanent pastures
13 forests and woodland 23 other
57

• Area total 390,580 sq km
  
• land 386,670 sq km water 3,910 sq km)
• Population 11,163,160 (July 1999 Est.)
• Ethnic Groups African 98 , White 1, Mixed
  and Asian 1
• Arrival of the British 1850 Rhodesia
• War of Independence 1963-1979
• Independence 18 July 1980

5
Zimbabwe Pre-Independence (1850-1890)

• 1850-1889 Scramble for land
• Outcome Explorers, colonists and missionaries
  grabbed land from the indigenous population
• 1889 The Lippert Concession
• Purpose Gave would-be settlers the right to
  acquire land rights from the indigenous people
• Outcome
• The British South African Company bought
  concessions from the British Monarch
• The revenue accrued was repatriated to the UK
• 1895 Great Zimbabwe becomes Rhodesia

6
Zimbabwe Pre-Independence (1890-1980)

• 1898 The Native Reserves Order in Council
• Purpose Creation of the Native Reserves for
  blacks only.
• Outcome Blacks were herded in low rainfall
  areas. These areas were to become the present-day
  communal areas.
• 1898-1920 Continued Scramble for land
• Outcome
• BSAC occupied Mashona and Matebele Land
• The first national uprising (Chimurenga) in 1893
  was crushed
• 1930 The Land Apportionment Act
• Purpose Formalise by law the separation of land
  between whites and blacks
• Outcome The fertile high rainfall areas became
  privately owned white farms
• 1965 The Tribal Trust Lands
• Purpose Change the name of the Native Reserves
  and create trustees for the land.
• Outcome High population densities on these lands
  made them degraded homelands.

7
Zimbabwe At Independence (1980)

• Total land area 96 million acres
• Blacks (97 of the population)
• 45 million acres (of low rainfall area)
• Whites (3 of the population)
• 51 million acres (of high rainfall fertile area)
• 3 of the population holding 53 of the land
• 1979 The Lancaster House Conference
  (pre-independence
• conference) -
• Purpose To redress the obvious imbalance in land
  ownership between blacks and whites
• Outcome Britain pledged to fund the resettlement
  programme under the willing seller, willing buyer
  and pound by Pound clauses. Acquired land was to
  be paid in foreign currency.

8
Zimbabwe Post Independence (1980 2000)

• 1980 The Zimbabwe conference on Reconstruction
  and
• Development (ZIMCORD)
• Purpose Obtain money from international donors
  to pay for land that were owned by whites.
• Outcome Pledges that were made were not carried
  out.
• 1981 The Communal Land Act
• Purpose and outcome change the Tribal trust
  lands into communal areas and shifted land
  authority from traditional rulers to local
  authorities
• 1985 The Land Acquisition Act
• Purpose Give the government the first right to
  purchase excess land for redistribution to the
  landless, under the willing buyer, willing seller
  clause
• Outcome Government was powerless in the face of
  white opposition and the lack of money to
  compensate willing sellers
• 1990 End of the provisions of the Lancaster
  House Agreement
• Between 1980 and 1990 only 71,000 families
  out of 162,000 were resettled.

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Zimbabwe Post Independence (1980 2000) contd

• 1992 The Land Acquisition Act II
• Purpose Speed up the land reform process by
  removing the willing seller, willing buyer
  clause.
• Outcome Opposition by farmers increased between
  1992 and 1997. Britain withdrew aid to the land
  reform programme.
• 1998 The Land Reform and Resettlement Conference
• Purpose Inform and involve the donor community
  in the land resettlement programme (48 countries
  attended).
• Outcome Program was not implemented essentially
  due to the fact that the money pledged by the
  donor community was not forthcoming.
• Compulsory acquisition of 800 farms announced

10
Zimbabwe The Land Invasions

• February 2000 Referendum on new constitution
• Purpose To empower the government to acquire
  land compulsorily without compensation.
• Outcome The whites and human rights groups
  formed a united front (under the Movement for
  Democratic change) to fight against the new
  constitution. The new constitution was rejected.
• Two weeks later, the pro-Mugabe War Veterans
  marched on
• the white-owned farmlands.
• Mid-February 2000 Britain kicks in
• Focused on human rights, elections and the
  current economic difficulties of Zimbabwe
• Organised the European union and other western
  allies to put pressure on Mugabe
• Early April
• First casualty of the land occupations a black
  policeman but ignored by the British media.
• One white farmer was killed and all hell broke
  loose

11
South Africa
12
South Africa Background Information
Land Use arable land 10
permanent crops 1 permanent
pastures 67 forests and woodland 7
other 15

• Area total 1,219,912 sq
  km
• land 1,219,912 sq km water 0 sq km)
• Popluation 43,421,021
• Ethnic Groups black 75.2, white 13.6,
  Colored 8.6, Indian 2.6
• Arrival of the Dutch 1652 (Cape Town
  established)
• War of Independence 1912-1994
• Independence April 1994

13
South Africa Pre-Independence

• 1652 Establishment of the Dutch East India
  company in Cape town
• Outcome This company held monopoly over trade
  and everything else
• 1652-1832 Struggle between the British and Dutch
  (Boers) over land
• Outcome Indigenous population excluded from land
  acquisition through various legal tools.
• 1832-1837 The Great trek
• Purpose The Boers march inwards looking for new
  territory
• Outcome Land acquired by Boers through acts of
  conquest.
• 1899-1902 The Anglo-Boer War
• Outcome The Treaty of Vereeneging excluded
  African people from political participation

14
South Africa Pre-Independence

• 1910 Formation of the Union of South Africa
• Outcome Birth of Apartheid
• 1912 Birth of the African National Congress
• 1913 Native lands Act
• Purpose Make more lands available to Europeans
• Outcome blacks were herded into African
  reserves and prevented from buying white-owned
  farms
• The ANC was created with the aim of preventing
  the Natives Land Act from passing through
  parliament
• 1923 The Black (Urban Areas) Act 21
• Purpose To create separated areas for occupation
  by blacks in cities
• Outcome High density townships created. The
  land belonged to the state.
• 1933 The Slums Act
• Purpose and Outcome Demolish multiracial areas
  and to segregate different race groups

15
South Africa Pre-Independence

• 1936 The Development Trust and Land Act 18
• Purpose Ensure more land for occupation by black
  people
• Outcome Enforced the segregation policies. Land
  was held as freehold title at the national level
  by the South African Development Trust
• 1950 The Group Areas Act
• Purpose Purge newly proclaimed white residential
  areas of all other race groups
• Outcome Further land expropriation
• April 1994 Nelson Mandela and the ANC take power
• At Independence
• 20 of the population held 87 of the land

16
South Africa Post-Independence

• November 1994 Restitution of Land Rights Act
• Purpose Repeal the discrimnatory legislation
  of the past
• Outcome The Land Claims Court and Commission
  were created
• Redistribution
• 700,000 ha transferred to approx. 55,000
  households by end 1999
• Restitution
• 60,000 claims lodged by cut-off date March 1999
• 1,450 property claims (mostly urban) settled by
  March 2000

17
Zimbabwe and South Africa Commonalities

• State-supported or state-led dispossession of
  indigeneous people for the benefit of white
  farmers
• All other land (even those reserved for blacks)
  was held by the state
• White farmers received massive state subsidies in
  order to make a lengthy transition to modernized
  commercial farming.
• Peasant farming was undermined by policies aimed
  at developing white agriculture.
• Majority of rural population restricted to
  increasingly smaller native reserves
• These reserves provided a source of cheap migrant
  labour for white-owned farms, mines and
  industries.
• At independence, the status quo was legalized and
  to change it required the willing consent of the
  beneficiaries of past expropriation.
• South Africa 20 of the population held 87
  of the land
• Zimbabwe 3 of the population held 53
  of the land

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Epilogue
   ..There is nothing new in the transformation
of pirates into legitimate landholders, invoking
the rule of law once they have established
themselves in possession of whatever they have
stolen. It all depends upon when when history
started, which such usurpers usually declare to
be at atime that coincides with their taking of
land that did not belong to them.. Jeremy
Seabrook (Third World Resurgence, May 2000)
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Debate

• Your turn

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Zimbabwe Land invasions What is your view ?

• Reversing Colonial history ?
• Mugabe struggling to stay in power at any cost ?
• A struggle for democracy and human rights ?
• Disturbing his regional neighbours and being n 1
  liberator again?
• Changing the rules of the game ? (willing consent
  of land grabbers)
• Can the same happen in south Africa ?

21
Zimbabwe Why did the Resettlement program
grind to a halt since the 1980s ?

•  
• The role of the powerful CFU lobby courting
  the Mugabe government and playing skilfully the
  divisions within the government
•  
• 1983 Economic recession the Zimbabwean
  domestic budget came under pressure, with the
  government being urged by the World bank, the
  British government and other western governments
  to tighten its budget deficit aka the
  structural Adjustment program
•  
• 1985 Severe drought served to reinforce the
  hands off policy towards the commercial
  farmers.
•   .
• Although the British government said it was
  prepared to put up money for the purchase of
  land, the conditions it laid down were very
  strict detailed planning and surveying before
  resettlement could take place Zimbabwe did not
  have sufficient surveyors to work at the levels
  necessitated by such restrictions.
•  
• Far too much money was spent buying the land
  rather than on the follow-through costs or
  resettling people.
•  
• Concern for continual flow of British and other
  Western bilateral aid

22
Zimbabwe and South Africa Commonalities.

• Growing evidence that redistributive land reform
  can help in reducing poverty, increase efficiency
  and establish the basis for sustainable growth.

Table Comparison of household characteristics
for resettled and communal households living in
natural region 11 ( Zimbabwe)
Source Calculated from Kinsey et al Land
Reform, growth and Equity, Journal of Southern
African Studies, 1999