The Zimbabwe Situation

The sugar story - land reform again

BY OWN CORRESPONDENT

The effects of the land 'reform' programme as seen on the Triangle sugar estates.
Credit: Tich Mabhunu

TRIANGLE - The Lowveld – hot and dry it lies around Triangle, Zimbabwe’s home of sugar. That, too, is where the Mkwasine Estate is based, jointly owned by Triangle Ltd and Hippo Valley Estates. Between them the three estates have been producing 1.2 million tonnes annually, 40% of which goes abroad. As long as the dams last, there will be enough water to keep the sugarcane under constant irrigation, providing ample supply for domestic and foreign markets. Or so you would have thought.

Take the Mkwasine Estate as one story that paints a clear, and dismal, picture of the Zanu (PF) government’s chaotic land reform exercise and its catastrophic effects – though many would say this is an example of how land was shared out equally and fairly.

Mkwasine was developed as one unit, something that would prove problematic when it came round to redistributing land some 20 years later. Of Mkwasine’s 18,834 hectares, 7,840 were under irrigation, the rest being grazed by cattle. National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) used Mkwasine’s private rail line to ferry the 850,000 tonnes annually to the Hippo Valley and Triangle Estates, which owned the only two mills in the area.

It was much like a village of its own. There were 1,141 permanent workers, with another 700 contract workers for most of the year, all of them provided with concrete housing. In addition, there were two schools and four clinics, which provided the workers and their families with basic education and health services.

Mkwasine came up with its own initiative to settle small-scale indigenous farmers on to the Estate. From 1981-88 they resettled 191 black farmers on to 2,030 hectares, a largely successful venture called the Chipiwa Settlement Scheme.

This was a carefully thought out-programme, with the Land Settlement Board collaborating to select the resettled farmers. Each new farmer received about 10 hectares, with Mkwasine providing loans to facilitate the purchases.

Mkwasine also ensured that the farmers had the necessary infrastructure and services on their land. Over the 18 years of close association the resettled farmers increasingly developed their independence, but still relied on the Estate for irrigation, haulage, and management assistance.

Thus nearly 200 new farmers were able to build comfortable residential plots and run their own land.

This went on until the Land Reform programme brought in a stream of 188 A2 farmers. A2 farm reallocation refers to a large farm being divided up into several smaller plots. A1 farms are reallocated in their entirety. The Mkwasine Estate was reduced to 2,000 hectares, though this is still dwindling with new people bearing resettlement letters arriving every month.

The new resettlement occurred without consultation with the Estate and simple provisions such as residential plots were not thought of, as they were in the Chipiwa scheme.

The 20 hectare fields are left barely attended half the time, while the owners live far away due to the lack of accommodation. This is a significant problem as sugarcane fields demand attention around the year. Unlike the centralized Chipiwa scheme, the new farmers cannot afford to hold the heavy machinery necessary to work the land. Production has dropped here from 110 tonnes per hectare to 40 tonnes per hectare. This kind of yield is insufficient to cover transport and production costs, and to still make a profit, so the entire affair has stopped being profitable.

Standing back from Mkwasine Estate’s individual situation, Zimbabwe is experiencing a serious shortfall in sugar production. This may be attributed to three factors: 1) yields are much lower than before, 2) NRZ can no longer fulfill transportation requirements, and 3) there are rumours that sugar is being exported illegally.

Meanwhile, Mkwasine is left with 42% of its land and its economies of scale, which allowed it to subsidise the Chipiwa settlers, have fallen away. Farmers now have to meet their own transportation costs, which have become very significant.

Once producing 15% of the country’s sugar, Mkwasine Estate has little option but to lay off 50% of its work force and to stop supporting resettled Chipiwa farmers. Alternatively, it may have to close down entirely, leaving nearly 2,000 workers with over 20,000 dependents without a job.

Sugar, it seems, is to suffer a similar fate to Zimbabwe’s other agriculture assets, namely tobacco, maize, wheat, beef, dairy, and horticulture.

Cape Town - South Africa would be "most reckless" to send aid to Zimbabwe, which is "in absolute chaos," said the president of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference. "Giving money to (Zimbabwe President Robert) Mugabe can be compared to giving money to an alcoholic beggar who tells you he has given up drink and will spend the money on food," Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of Durban said in a mid-July telephone interview from Durban. The cardinal had returned from a two-day trip to Zimbabwe as part of a delegation with the ecumenical South African Council of Churches. Mugabe is reportedly seeking a loan from South Africa to pay for electricity, fuel and food to offset chronic shortages. South Africa is in talks with the Zimbabwean government and may end up aiding its neighbor financially, South African President Thabo Mbeki told reporters July 24. Cardinal Napier said Zimbabweans would be better served through donations to churches and humanitarian aid agencies because Mugabe probably would squander the funding. "Mugabe has never respected conditions attached to money lent to his government before, so there is no reason to think that he would do so this time," the cardinal said. An ongoing campaign of government-ordered shantytown demolitions has left hundreds of thousands homeless. The campaign, Operation Drive Out Trash, has been condemned by the United Nations, numerous countries and church leaders.

"Mugabe wants to destroy all semblance of opposition and aims to achieve this by bringing people to their knees with himself as the only person who can help them," the cardinal said. Zimbabwe's government said the demolitions were carried out to eliminate illegal settlements that had contributed to a rise in crime in Zimbabwe's deteriorating cities. The demolitions, which began in May, have left 700,000 Zimbabweans without homes or jobs, according to a mid-July UN report. The South African Council of Churches said in its report that the "deliberate destruction of the informal economy, which is meant to cater to economically vulnerable groups, is unparalleled in modern-day Africa." Near Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, the council delegation visited a refugee camp where some 5,000 people were living in "inhuman conditions." "These people are removed from opportunities to earn a living and driven to the periphery of society," it said. "A shocking sight greeted the delegation" when it entered Mbare township, 25 miles southeast of Harare, the report said. "Almost every yard was filled with rubble from the demolition of structures." At a Catholic church in the township, the delegation saw long lines of people waiting to collect monthly food rations, the report said. Cardinal Napier told Catholic News Service that Mbare "was so full of rubble it looked like it had been bombed."