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Z I M N E W S
5 August 2000
In today's issue :

From The Guardian (UK), 5 August
Farm seizures start with widow's eviction

Centenary and Harare - The Zimbabwean government has begun its long-promised mass expropriation of white-owned land for redistribution to millions of black peasants with the seizure of the first farms without compensation. The confiscation of Viewfield Farm in Centenary, an hour's drive from Harare, comes after months of confrontation and violence as President Robert Mugabe vowed to take much of Zimbabwe's fertile land out of the hands of a few thousand white farmers. Although hundreds of farms have already been illegally occupied by war veterans and their supporters, and several white families forced to flee their homes, Viewfield is the first to be taken by the government after being legally designated for confiscation.

An official messenger served the elderly owner, April Davies, with the papers authorising its seizure. She has 90 days to vacate her house. Her 34 black farm labourers and their families have also been ordered off the property. The government bussed 47 families, described by local officials as "land starved", to the 1,300-hectare (3,200-acre) tobacco and maize farm. They were allowed to peg out 28 hectares each. The government says another two dozen farms in the area will be resettled within days and it will use the army to move 500,000 families on to expropriated farms in the coming months. It described those given land on Viewfield Farm as widows, war veterans and villagers on communal land. Locals say the families were chosen for their loyalty to Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

The Mashonaland provincial governor, Elliot Manyika, who handed over the land, said: "This is the start of an ongoing exercise to resettle the people before the onset of the rains. "We want them to prepare the land and produce to feed the nation. Infrastructure will follow when we have finished putting the people on the land," he said to the cheers of the new owners. But by Mr Manyika's own admission, the 47 families have no tools or skill in using the farm's equipment, raising serious doubts that they will fulfil his exhortation. Critics warn that wholesale seizure of commercial farms will wreck Zimbabwe's agricultural production and an already battered economy.

The finance minister, Simba Makoni, admits that the economy is in "deep crisis" and imposed a sharp devaluation and a block on new public spending in an attempt to revive it. The government is also scrambling to fend off looming American sanctions aimed at blocking all international finance and US aid to Zimbabwe because of the illegal land seizures and political violence. White farmers have taken the government to the supreme court, arguing that the land seizures amount to unconstitutional racial discrimination. In his court application, David Hasluck, the director of the CFU, concedes that whites dominate land ownership but adds that the confiscations amount to "an assault upon the white farming community, the rape of their properties and the deprivation of their livelihoods".

Mrs Davies's farm was invaded by "war veterans" in March. Within weeks her husband Douglas died of a heart attack. She blames the stress of the land seizure. After the confiscation order was served, Mrs Davies went to Harare to stay with her daughter. She refuses to speak to the press. Although Mr Mugabe has vowed repeatedly that his government will not pay a penny for the soil he says was originally stolen from blacks by British colonists, the government is legally obliged to compensate Mrs Davies for her house and farm buildings. But the two sides have not even begun to discuss an amount and the farmers union doubts she will see any money soon.

From The Star (SA), 5 August
Zim vets seize and sell tobacco firm's land

Harare - Zimbabwe's war veterans have taken the government's plans for land reform into their own hands, occupying a huge swathe of white-owned land in Kambuzuma, cutting it into plots and selling it, a reporter said on Friday. The move, described as a "housing scheme" by the veterans' local leader, Benjamin Sitiya, involves selling 2 500 plots on about 100 hectares of land in this southern suburb of Harare owned by Rothmans International, a major tobacco firm with United States and British interests. The initiative is a new twist in the veterans' six-month campaign to occupy white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.

The veterans wanted to "take their fate into their own hands since the local council is doing nothing to help them", Sitiya said, as workers around him were building homes on the plots. On Friday, about 50 people, mainly men, were busy building on the site, where the walls of a dozen houses have already sprung up and the foundations of another 50 were in place. "We are not doing anything wrong," said Tobaiwa, as he dug foundations for a house. "If some say what we are doing in unlawful, they must have a roof over their head. We have occupied the land and we now divide it between ourselves," another person said. "It is easier, safer and quicker than to wait for the government to do it."

Hundreds of people, mainly women, have gathered to support the workers, singing independence war songs in their native Shona language and shouting slogans against white farmers and the opposition to President Robert Mugabe's government. Nora, whose husband is busy building a large house, is impatient to move out of the overcrowded township where the couple and their eight children live in three rooms with his parents. "We could not stand this life any more," she said. "This scheme is something we never even hoped for." Sitiya said houses with ten bedrooms were planned at the site. But questioned on the financial transactions involved in distributing the plots of land, the war veteran leader suddenly became nervous. He confirmed that those who were benefiting from the scheme were soldiers, police officers, former detainees and war widows who had paid a sign-up fee of Z$230 (about R21) and Z$1 000 per month. One of the buyers, who preferred to remain unnamed, confirmed he had paid the veterans "a much bigger amount of money" but would not say how much. "You have to abide by the rules of the game," he said. Rothmans International was not available for comment.

The veterans are in a head on conflict with the Harare municipal council which in theory is responsible for distributing land for construction of new homes. Low-cost housing in the area is in short supply as increasing numbers of villagers have begun flooding into the suburbs of the capital. Sitiya condemned the authorities' failure to act to help those in need and rejected statements by the government that veterans could not take on the government's role of redistributing land. "Mugabe can't have it both ways," Sitiya said. "He cannot ask us to occupy the farms before the elections and then tell us to go home when he feels he has saved his skin."

From News24 (SA), 4 August
'Dazed' Mugabe sows confusion

Harare - Appearing stooped and dazed at one of his press conferences, 76-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been sowing confusion with conflicting statements which can only worsen the crisis already gripping his nation. One observer warned that the vital tobacco industry could go up in smoke. Confusion reigned on Friday over whether Mugabe would end the illegal occupation of white-owned farms by so-called war veterans, after he issued contradictory statements. On Wednesday, Mugabe said the estimated 15 000 squatters who have occupied about 1 600 white-owned farms since February would be moved to farms that have been earmarked for nationalisation. However, he backtracked on Thursday, telling a meeting of black farmers that his government will not force militants, led by veterans of the bush war that ended white rule in 1980, off the illegally-occupied farms, the official Zimbabwe news agency reported.

The agency said Mugabe claimed his Wednesday statement was misunderstood by the media, including the state-controlled Herald, which reported it in full on Thursday. "What I said was that we have acquired just over 3 000 farms. I said on some of those farms there are already some war veterans. We will leave the war veterans that are already there," Mugabe said, according to the agency. He vowed to step up Zimbabwe's controversial seizures of white-owned farms and lashed out at Britain and other donors for criticising his policies. "The land belongs to Zimbabweans. It was their land (and) they are prepared to die for it if need be," Mugabe said at a meeting of the Zimbabwe Farmers Union representing black farmers. "We are not an extension of Britain and can never be ... The donors can stay with their money if their condition is that that money can only come if we give up the demand on land we are pursuing," Mugabe was quoted as saying by his spokesman George Charamba. Speaking in Shona, Mugabe said: "For now we are looking at 3 041 farms. Should the need arise, we will ... make more acquisitions, but simply to complement the 3041."

Britain, the former colonial power, had said on Wednesday that it would be "very disturbing" if the Mugabe government were to increase the number of farms earmarked for confiscation from 804 to more than 3 000. Zimbabwe counts a total of about 5 000 farms, of which some 3 000 are highly productive tobacco concerns generating desperately needed foreign exchange. London has offered 36 million pounds to assist in land reform on condition that the lawlessness reigning on the occupied farms be brought under control. The IMF and the World Bank have meanwhile suspended aid to the southern African nation.

But on Wednesday, Mugabe, 76, appearing stooped and dazed at a news conference in Harare for local and foreign media organisations, did not make any of the references which he later claimed to have done. The government said for the first time on Tuesday that it has targeted 3 000 farms for confiscation, but admitted that no more than 200 were chosen for seizure as state land in coming weeks. The government has given no details of the names and locations or the identity of the owners of nearly 2 250 farms it says it wants to hand over to landless blacks. The CFU said that without that information it was not able to collate which of those properties were occupied by illegal squatters that Mugabe now indicated would be allowed to stay where they are. Even under land laws passed by the ruling party in April empowering the government to seize land without paying for it, farmers were guaranteed rights to lodge objections and claim compensation for buildings, dams, irrigation and other improvements. Any new seizures were expected to take several months and it was considered virtually impossible for the heavily indebted government to implement any massively expanded confiscation programme or transport thousands of impoverished families to seized farms, the union said.

Mugabe's latest remarks were set to deepen the nation's land crisis. In the agriculture-based economy, farm disruptions since Mugabe backed the occupations in February have already caused losses of more 25 percent in both annual wheat production and to tobacco crops, the nation's biggest hard currency earner. The nation suffered a countrywide general strike by labour unions backed by the opposition MDC and farmers that shut down the economy on Wednesday to protest against a breakdown in law and order triggered mainly by illegal land occupations. John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe, said that if the government does seize a total of 3 000 farms, "the tobacco industry would pack up". He said Mugabe's pledge on Wednesday to remove the war veterans from the farms was designed to appear "to be saying the right thing" during a visit by South African President Thabo Mbeki. Finance Minister Simba Makoni said the two presidents discussed "measures that (we can take) to work together to redress the negative perception of Zimbabwe as a country which doesn't uphold the rule of law". South African officials, worried that Zimbabwe's instability could spill over in the region, said after talks with Mugabe in Harare on Wednesday that the prospect of economic aid to Zimbabwe was discussed to help it rebuild its crumbling economy by restoring confidence in beleaguered agriculture, tourism and investment activities.

From The Star (SA), 4 August
Zim in shock over Mugabe's about-face on land

Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's immediate climbdown on a pledge to remove invading war veterans from white-owned farms was greeted with disappointment and scorn on Friday. Mugabe promised on Wednesday to give land to all blacks in need within this month, and that, in the process, war veterans -and their land-hungry followers - would be moved from the farms that were not earmarked for seizure. His statement during a visit by his South African counterpart, President Thabo Mbeki, on Wednesday was understood to mean that the hundreds of invaders occupying about 1 600 white-owned farms would be removed by end of August. On Thursday, however, he denied ever saying that. "I didn't say war veterans should be removed," he told small-scale commercial black farmers.

Opposition and trade unions said his about-face on as crucial a matter as the land issue was "dangerous", but not surprising. The opposition MDC shadow minister for lands described Mugabe's volte-face as "dangerous", while the workers' association described the entire land reform programme as "confused". "Ideologically, we have always known that he is a two-faced man who is unprincipled, but the clear blatant allegation that he was misquoted ... is a dangerous sign which we are seeing here and goes beyond ideological confusion and hypocrisy. There is an element of senile dementia," said Tendai Biti of the MDC. Isaac Matongo, acting president of the ZCTU which organised a one-day general strike to protest against the lawlessness on the occupied farms said Mugabe's statement was not surprising. "We are not surprised, Mugabe doesn't do what he says. We knew very well when he said the war veterans would be removed, he was lying. He was saying that because Thabo Mbeki was by his side," said Matongo.

"It may be difficult for Mbeki to recover from this latest about-face by Mugabe," stated the editorial in the independent Daily News. Phillip Munyanyi, secretary-general of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), blamed the confusion surrounding land reform on politicians trying to prove that the land seizures were not politically motivated. "The only thing is that there is confusion. When you are dealing with people that want to prove that what they have done is right (before and after the elections) and is not for political gains, that becomes the source of misunderstanding," said Munyanyi.

Biti said the land issue was too important to stand idly by as it was mishandled. "The question of land is obviously important in the politics of the country, and for him to be allowed to continue playing football with the question of land like he is doing, Zimbabweans must not accept that. We are being foolish in that we are watching somebody who is now really suffering from insanity mess around us with our country, with our lives and, I think what he is doing is to lay the basis for the break-up of Zimbabwe." He accused Mugabe of "whipping up emotions of war veterans" and militarising the land issue by having the army spearhead the redistribution process, adding that the president had turned the issue into "a powderkeg". "It epitomises the state of the country, it characterises and underpins the state of the crisis and the crisis of the state," said Biti. Matongo said Mugabe had ceased to be a leader, but had turned into a ruler. "Mugabe has got no love for this country, he doesn't have love for his people, he doesn't even care about the people being killed, day in and day out. He is not leading us, he is ruling us," Matongo said.

From The Zimbabwe Independent, 4 August
High Court orders vote recount in Marondera East

MINISTER of Mines and Energy Sydney Sekeramayi’s political future hangs in the balance after the High Court this week ordered a recount of votes in his Marondera East constituency citing serious irregularities in the electoral process. This follows an application by the MDC candidate. Sekeremayi, the former Minister of State Security under which the shadowy CIO falls, won the election by a razor thin margin in the Marondera East constituency. No immediate details of the recount could be obtained yesterday as the MDC candidate’s lawyer Brian Kagoro and Sekeramayi were reportedly locked in a meeting at Makombe building. The counting was reported to have started by 11am. The MDC candidate, Didymus Munenzva, lost by just 63 votes in a tightly contested poll that was marred by violence, and intimidation allegedly engineered by government-sponsored war veterans and Zanu PF supporters. Sekeramayi polled 10 692 votes against Munenzva’s 10 629.

MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube told the Independent that some of the irregularities in the election were so serious that they were not only considering the nullification of the results but the disqualification of some of the Zanu PF candidates whom they believed violated the electoral laws. "We will wait to see what action the courts will take, we have a very good case in most of these suits," Ncube said. Among some of the irregularities cited by Munenzva in his High Court application were the threats issued against MDC supporters by Sekeramayi to the effect that unspecified action was going to be taken against them. "We have this evidence on tape," Ncube said. Ncube said that Sekeramayi pointed out that if the MDC won, the government would go after its supporters after the election. When Sekeramayi addressed his star rally in Marondera, thousands of people were frog-marched to the venue, shops were forced to close and intimidation was rife. MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai told the Independent that the order for a recount showed that there could have been something terribly wrong in the poll.

From Pan African News Agency, 4 August
Zimbabwe In Diplomatic Offensive To Thwart US Sanctions

HARARE - Zimbabwe embarked on a regional diplomatic offensive Friday to enlist the support of southern African states to ward off punitive economic sanctions the US is contemplating imposing on the country for tolerating lawlessness by government supporters. Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said Zimbabwe would lobby SADC countries at a weekend regional summit in Namibia to win support against the US moves intended to ban all aid to the country. Washington also plans to use its influence to block similar international assistance, including debt relief that the country desperately needs.

The US Congress has drafted and passed a Bill, titled "Zimbabwe Democracy Act 2,000," for Senate approval, which will provide for the stiff sanctions against Zimbabwe, in punishment for President Robert Mugabe's backing of the occupation of white-owned by independence war veterans demanding land reform. "I'm leaving for Windhoek (Namibia's capital) for a meeting of the SADC council of ministers. We will be explaining the importance of the (US Congressional) Bill and its implications to the whole region. SADC will be directly affected by the sanctions, which the US wants to impose on Zimbabwe," Mudenge said. "It's a bad Bill. It's really dangerous...it's horrible. The Americans want to re-colonise Africa and make Zimbabwe their protectorate...that is outrageous," he added.

The Zimbabwean government is in the middle of implementing a controversial land reform programme, under which it plans to compulsorily acquire thousands of white-owned farms to resettle landless blacks without paying full compensation to the farmers for the land taken. Under this plan, which has drawn international criticism, the government says the obligation to pay the white farmers for the land it intends to acquire from them lies with Britain, Zimbabwe's former colonial power, as agreed in an independence deal 20 years ago.

Zimbabwe has already successfully lobbied the OAU and the Non-Aligned Movement for support against the US economic sanctions, which economists said would badly hurt the country's agriculture-driven economy, already shaken by the 1999 withdrawal of international balance of payment support. Mudenge said he would take the diplomatic offensive against the US to Congress itself and at the United Nations in coming weeks, in addition to engaging unnamed lobby groups in Washington to plead Zimbawe's case. "I'm looking forward to going to Congress myself for lobbying, perhaps together with other SADC foreign ministers. There is ultimately an option, which we are examining, and it's that of taking the matter to the UN General Assembly," he explained. "We support the maintenance of the rule of law. It's not an issue where there can be any quibbling. Violence cannot be supported and it's against the laws of this country," he added. "Police are arresting people implicated in violence and some of them are awaiting trial."

From The Daily News, 4 August
Zanu PF seeks MDC support on proposed US sanctions bill

ZANU PF had a torrid time trying to get the opposition MDC and Zanu to join the government in opposing proposed United States economic sanctions against Zimbabwe as punishment for allowing anarchy, lawlessness and the breakdown of the rule of law. After the motion, to be debated on 10 August, had been tabled by Eddison Zvobgo (Zanu PF, Masvingo South), David Coltart, the MDC secretary for legal affairs, rose to rebut the presentation but was ruled out of order by the Speaker, Emmerson Mnangagwa who said yesterday was not the day for debate.

Zvobgo was interjected by boos and jeers as he presented the bill. The government fears the Zimbabwe Democracy Bill, now before the US Congress, would destroy Zimbabwe's sovereignty and pave the way for the overthrow of the government. Yesterday, Zvobgo, the Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs, had a torrid time trying to convince the 58 members of the opposition to back a motion condemning the law he described as a "vicious assault upon our common nationhood and sovereignty." According to Zvobgo, Parliament should express its "disgust and alarm" that the US Congress could pass a law which directly impinged on the conduct and management of domestic affairs of a foreign "sovereign but friendly" state.

The Bill, now before US House of Representatives and to be tabled in a few weeks' time, sets prohibitions on the provision of assistance or debt relief to Zimbabwe. It says no American assistance may be provided to the government of Zimbabwe and no indebtedness by Zimbabwe to the US may be cancelled or reduced. Conditions for restoration of eligibility for assistance and debt relief were that the US Congress be satisfied that the rule of law had been restored in Zimbabwe, including the respect for ownership and title to property held before January this year. Also guaranteed should be freedom of speech and association and an end to the lawlessness, violence and intimidation sponsored, condoned or tolerated by the Zanu PF government, its agencies and supporters. The government was also required to make a "good faith effort" towards an expeditious removal of its troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo and ending all other support for any of the parties to the conflict in that country.

Amid boos and jeers from MDC benches, Zvobgo said the findings by the drafters of the Bill were "spurious" and ignored the basic issues at stake in Zimbabwe. He said: "This Bill is a weapon intended to destroy our sovereignty as a state and a blatant incitement to persons, institutions, organisations that seek to achieve the overthrow of our lawfully and constitutionally elected government in Zimbabwe." To loud interjections from MDC MPs of "that is not true and that is why you are no longer minister", Zvobgo said it was "outrageous" that by that Bill, the US government had pledged to pay all legal expenses to the opposition in any litigation they might want to bring before the courts against the government.

From News24 (SA), 4 August
SADC must sack Mugabe as security chief

Johannesburg – SADC leaders should sack Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as head of the region's security organ, the Democratic Party said on Friday. This weekend's summit in the Namibian capital, Windhoek, was an opportunity for SADC to send a strong, clear message to Mugabe that he should cease to hold the entire region's political and economic future to ransom, DP spokesperson Nick Clelland said in a statement. "SADC heads of government must let President Mugabe know in unambiguous terms that his presidential candidacy for 2002 will be frowned upon and widely condemned if he fails to put his people, the people of the region, stability and the rule of law before his perpetual blind desire to remain President at all costs." As part of its institutional review and the review of its security organs, SADC should confirm its message by sacking Mugabe as chair of the security organ which he had undermined by presiding over Zimbabwe's engagement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Clelland said.
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From The Star (SA), 4 August
Unpredictable Mugabe paints Zim into a corner

Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's increasingly unpredictable twists and turns on his controversial land-grab scheme could leave him internationally isolated, political analysts said on Thursday. Mugabe's hardline policies also are likely to bring more domestic pressure against his beleaguered Zanu-PF, which barely survived its toughest electoral challenge in June and was on Wednesday hit by a crippling national strike, they said. Just a day after appearing to give ground with a promise to remove war veterans illegally occupying hundreds of white-owned farms by month's end, Mugabe backed off from reconciliation on Thursday and said he was determined to seize more than 3 000 farms for the veterans and landless peasants.

"I think Mugabe is now courting international isolation," said political scientist Alfred Nhema. "He is compounding a perception that Zimbabwe's problem is Mugabe himself." Mugabe contradicted his conciliatory remarks a day after a broadly backed one-day strike called by the powerful ZCTU and a meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki, who has been trying for months to lead him back into the international fold. The strike, which was also backed by the white farmers' association and the opposition MDC, was called to protest about violence against opposition supporters, farmers and farm workers.

Nhema, chairman of the political science department at the University of Zimbabwe, said Mugabe's latest turnaround was bound to increase domestic and international pressure. "I don't think there are many countries or international organisations in the world who are prepared to follow this act and all these twists and turns and to make sense of them," he said. "In that respect, and on account of the lack of clarity and consistency, many countries around the world, including those Zimbabwe badly needs for its economic wellbeing, are going to give up on its government." Solomon Nkiwane, another political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, said Mugabe risked isolation even on the regional diplomatic stage and could alienate Mbeki. "He is behaving in such a way that it is very difficult for people to defend him," he said. "It is also difficult to say who is benefiting from his so-called hardline policies. The majority of the people have not, and the results of the general elections show that his party is not a beneficiary either."

"What's going on is a circus. The economy is doomed at the rate at which we are going," said private economic consultant Edmore Tobaiwa. An economist at a Harare bank added: "A president who denies something within 24 hours of saying it does not cheer the market. He's kind of added to the general gloom. Investors love some predictability and Mr Mugabe is handing them the opposite." The opposition MDC said Mugabe's behaviour was predictable and focused on cowing voters ahead of presidential elections in 2002. Mugabe was not concerned about the impact of his policies on his people and it was left to Zimbabweans to continue to vigorously fight for their rights to force their leader to do the right thing, said MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube. Ncube said the MDC and its ZCTU union ally would call for more action if Mugabe did not restore law and order within weeks. On Mugabe's behaviour, Ncube said: "It confirms what we have always said, that the president is a populist who says one thing at night and another in the morning. For him to repudiate what he publicly said, monitored by television and radio, shows that he wants to perpetuate the crisis."

Political commentator Emmanuel Magade, a law lecturer, said Mugabe had clearly chosen the land issue as his political card and the war veterans and landless peasants as his constituency to retain power. "That seems to be the basis of his actions now," he said. Despite the apparent chaos, senior Mugabe aides say the 76-year-old former guerrilla leader - in power in the former Rhodesia since independence in 1980 - is fully convinced that his actions are right and in the interest of all Zimbabweans. "The president is a nationalist at heart, and the world is out to demonise him," said one.
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Friday, August 4 6:27 PM SGT
Zimbabwe: Labour, opposition slam Mugabe's about-face
HARARE, Aug 4 (AFP) -

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's immediate climbdown on a pledge to remove invading war veterans from white-owned farms was greeted with with disappointment and scorn Friday.

Mugabe promised on Wednesday to give land to all blacks in need within this month, and that in the process war veterans -- and their land-hungry followers -- would be moved from the farms that are not earmarked for seizure.

His statement during a visit by his South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday was understood to mean that the hundreds of invaders occupying some 1,600 white-owned farms would be removed by end of August, but Thursday he denied ever saying that.

"I didn't say war veterans should be removed," he told small-scale commercial black farmers.

Opposition and trade unions said his about-face on as crucial a matter as the land issue was "dangerous" but not surprising.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) shadow minister for lands described Mugabe's volte-face as "dangerous", while the workers' association described the entire land reform programme as "confused".

"Ideologically we have always known that he is a two-faced man who is unprincipled, but the clear blatant allegation that he was misquoted ... is a dangerous sign which we are seeing here and goes beyond ideological confusion and hypocrisy. There is an element of senile dementia," said Tendai Biti of the MDC.

Isaac Matongo, acting president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions which organised a one-day general strike to protest the lawlessness on the occupied farms said Mugabe's statement was not surprising.

"We are not surprised, Mugabe ... doesn't do what he says.

"We knew very well when he said the war veterans would be removed, he was lying. He was saying that because Thabo Mbeki was by his side," Matongo said.

"It may be difficult for Mbeki to recover from this latest about-face by Mugabe," stated the editorial in the independent Daily News.

Phillip Munyanyi, secretary general of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), blamed the confusion surrounding land reform on politicians trying to prove that the land seizures were not politically motivated.

"The only thing is that there is confusion. When you are dealing with people that want to prove that what they have done is right (before and after the elections) and is not for political gains, that becomes the source of misunderstanding," Munyanyi said.

But Biti said the land issue was too important to stand idly by as it is mishandled.

"The question of land is obviously important in the politics of the country, and for him to be allowed to continue playing football with the question of land like he is doing, Zimbabweans must not accept that.

"We are being foolish in that we are watching somebody who is now really suffering from insanity mess around us with our country, with our lives and, I think what he is doing is to lay the basis for the break-up of Zimbabwe."

He accused Mugabe of "whipping up emotions of war veterans" and militarising the land issue by having the army spearhead the redistribution process, adding that the president had turned the issue into "a powderkeg".

"It epitomises the state of the country, it characterises and underpins the state of the crisis and the crisis of the state," said Biti.

Matongo said Mugabe had ceased to be a leader, but had turned into a ruler. "Mugabe has got no love for this country, he doesn't have love for his people, he doesn't even care about the people being killed day in day out.

He is not leading us, he is ruling us," Matongo said.

Mugabe said war veterans could not be removed from the farms until they were moved to newly acquired land and vowed to push ahead with accelerated and extended reforms, telling international donors to keep their promised aid if it came with conditions.

Zimbabwe dollar could come in from the cold
By Tony Hawkins in Harare
Financial Times: August 3 2000 18:33GMT

Zimbabwe's devaluation could leave the country with a stronger exchange rate than existed before the official rate was changed on Tuesday, bankers said on Thursday.

This is because the authorities hope that all transactions will now be conducted at the new official exchange rate of Z$50 to the US dollar, rather than three-quarters of foreign exchange business being transacted in the parallel market at a substantial premium.

When he announced the 24.2 per cent devaluation on Tuesday, Simba Makoni, finance minister, said that only about a quarter of foreign currency business had been carried out at the official rate of Z$38, with the remainder being traded in the free market at rate of Z$60 and above.

Dealers say this resulted in a "blend" exchange rate in the region of Z$56 to the US dollar. If the market is now required to trade only at the official rate of Z$50 - with no free market transactions - it would mean that far from being devalued, the effective exchange rate for the Zimbabwe currency will actually have been revalued by approximately 12 per cent.

It is unclear how this system will work given the probability that there will be only a limited short-term increase in foreign currency earnings. If the authorities seek to impose a unified exchange rate with no parallel market dealings, the likelihood is that an even longer foreign currency "pipeline" than the estimated US$600m will develop.

It is, however, suggested that the official rate will be adjusted weekly to reflect the yawning gap between Zimbabwe's inflation rate of 59.3 per cent - and forecast to exceed 70 percent by October - and that of its main trading partners. But business leaders say such technical adjustments will count for little if the land crisis continues to worsen.

Hopes that, under pressure from South Africa president Thabo Mbeki, Mr Robert Mugabe would moderate his stand on farm takeovers faded on Thursday when the Zimbabwe president reaffirmed his government's plans to acquire more than 3,000 white-owned farms "plus, plus".

Speaking at the opening of the annual congress of the predominantly black Zimbabwe Farmers Union, Mr Mugabe denied that he had promised less than 24 hours earlier to move war veterans off the white-owned farms they were occupying and resettle them on newly acquired land.

"We will not force ex-combatants off the farms that they are on," he said. We will leave them there. "Up to 3,000 farms plus, plus will have to be gazetted (for compulsory acquisition) and will have to be gazetted soon," he said.

Meanwhile, he leader of the war veterans, Dr Chnejerai Hunvzi said that the takeover of at least 3,000 farms over the next few weeks meant that there was no case for any new farm invasions. He accused what he called "bogus groups" including members of the former Rhodesian army that fought against the war veterans in the 1970s of organising recent farm incursions.

Editorial comment: Zimbabwe's ruin
Financial Times: August 3 2000 19:05GMT

For a fleeting moment, it looked as if sanity might be returning to the government of Zimbabwe. After a five-hour heart-to-heart with Thabo Mbeki, the South African leader, President Robert Mugabe was reported on Wednesday to have said that illegal land occupation by so-called "war veterans" would cease. Mr Mbeki expressed confidence that Zimbabwe would once more respect the rule of law.

Coming on top of the long-overdue devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar, it looked as though Mr Mugabe was finally heeding the messages of his electorate - a drastic slump in support for his party at the polls in June - and the international community. No such luck. Yesterday he denied ever making such conciliatory comments. And he repeated his determination to seize not 800 farms, as previously announced, but more than 3,000, for redistribution to landless black peasants by the end of the month.

Even in terms of his own reform, forced through parliament before the election, such an ambition would be impossible to realise within the law. Farmers have to be given several weeks' notice to quit, their buildings and other investments have to be valued for compensation (there is no compensation payable for the land), and they have a right to appeal. But whatever Mr Mbeki may say, Mr Mugabe does not appear to care about the rule of law, nor his neighbour's advice.

He does not seem to care about the state of Zimbabwe's economy, either. Devaluation of the currency from Z$38 to Z$50 to the US dollar was desperately needed both by the commercial farm sector and the mining industry, to enable them to export competitively. But devaluation alone cannot stop the rot. The budget deficit stands at 15 per cent of GDP, thanks to a surge in pre-election spending, and must be drastically reduced. Inflation is running at 60 per cent and unemployment at one in three of the workforce.

But it is too late for devaluation to prevent the continuing collapse of agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, caused by Mr Mugabe's campaign. Tobacco seed sales are down by 20 per cent. Farmers are unable to raise bank loans for planting because of uncertainty over ownership of their land. It is not just white farmers who are affected, but the entire rural workforce.

Urban Africans had already shown their disgust by voting in large numbers for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change in June, in spite of widespread intimidation. Yet Mr Mugabe has ignored them. Mr Mbeki has appealed for a return to the rule of law. So has Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general. To no avail. Mr Mugabe seems deaf to all reason.

Mugabe turns up rhetoric
By Tony Hawkins in Harare, Victor Mallet in Johannesburg and Reuters
Financial Times : August 3 2000 00:49GMT

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Thursday confirmed that he intends to go ahead with plans to to take more than 3,000 farms from whites for black resettlement, and has denied promising to remove war veterans illegally occupying white-owned farms.

Mugabe told the black Zimbabwe Farmers Union in Bindura, north of the capital Harare, that he would not bow to international pressure and told donors who have suspended aid to his country that he did not want their money.

"We are now in the process of settling people and have identified the slightly more than 3,000 farms we shall gazette and acquire. The war vets will stay on all the farms until we resettle them," he said.

"The donors can stay with their money. We will not give up our land because of what the donors say." He denied saying at a news conference with visiting South African President Thabo Mbeki on Wednesday that he would have war veterans removed from farms. "I didn’t say war veterans should be removed," he said.

The president's comments follow mounting popular frustration and industrial unrest over the land issue and Zimbabwe's faltering economy.

Factories, farms and businesses across the country shut down on Wednesday as the vast majority of Zimbabwe's 1.4m workers observed the one-day strike called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions.

Union officials claimed 80-90 per cent support for the stoppage, but government offices and institutions were open, as were many small businesses. Large companies and the country's main manufacturing industries were closed, along with the banks and leading supermarkets and retailers.

The stay-away was peaceful, with few reports of violence or intimidation. The strike was called by the ZCTU, with the support of the Commercial Farmers' Union, in protest at the breakdown of law and order in Zimbabwe in urban areas as well as on commercial farms.

The best news the country's beleaguered 4,500 white commercial farmers have had for some time was Tuesday's decision to devalue the Zimbabwe dollar by almost 25 per cent to Z$50 to the US unit from Z$38 previously.

The devaluation has been welcomed by businessmen and the tobacco industry, though some economists believe that the government should have gone further and tried to eliminate the free-market premium altogether.

Foreign exchange dealers said they expected the free-market rate, which had been as high as Z$68 to the US dollar, to narrow, perhaps to about Z$60.

This would leave a 20 per cent premium at the new official rate, according to some stock brokers.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change welcomed the devaluation, but warned that the "overdue" adjustment did not go far enough to give the country a competitive real exchange rate.

Economists said that, while devaluation had lowered the trade-weighted real effective exchange rate, making Zimbabwe's exports more competitive, the real rate was still 20 per cent higher than it was at the end of last year and nearly double its levels of January 1999.

Bankers say a further downward adjustment is inevitable and could come within two months. Much will depend on supplementary measures to be announced soon by Simba Makoni, finance minister.

The main beneficiaries will be the tobacco and gold sectors. Other exporters, including the tourist sector, had been selling currency earnings at the free-market rate and could be temporarily worse off if, as dealers predict, the free-market premium declines over the next few weeks.

Economists are unanimous in predicting a sharp increase in the inflation rate. Zimbabwe imports all its petroleum and 40 per cent of its electricity. These increased costs will have to be passed on to the consumer.

One bank economist expects devaluation to add some 8 per cent to consumer prices over the next two to three months, which, with second-round effects and the worsening shortages partly caused by the land crisis, would push inflation above 70 per cent by September.

Saturday, August 5 12:05 AM SGT
Zimbabwe veterans sell land owned by white business interests
KAMBUZUMA, Zimbabwe, Aug 4 (AFP) -

Zimbabwe's war veterans have taken the government's plans for land reform into their own hands, occupying a huge swathe of white-owned land here, cutting it into plots and selling it, an AFP reporter on the scene said Friday.

The move, described as a "housing scheme" by the veterans' local leader Benjamin Sitiya -- involves selling 2,500 plots on about 100 hectaresacres) of land in this southern suburb of Harare owned by Rothmans International, a major tobacco firm with US and British interests.

The initiative is a new twist in the veterans' six-month campaign to occupy white-owned farms for redistribution to black peasants.

The land invasions began in February, in the wake of the government's controversial plans to seize white-owned farms. On Sunday, President Robert Mugabe announced that an additional 3,000 farms would be seized, on top of 804 already earmarked for redistribution.

Some 70 percent of Zimbabwe's best farming land is owned by some 4,000 white farmers.

The veterans wanted to "take their fate into their own hands since the local council is doing nothing to help them," Sitiya said, as workers around him were building homes on the plots.

On Friday, around 50 people, mainly men, were busy on the site where the walls of a dozen houses have already sprung up and the foundations of another 50 were in place.

"We are not doing anything wrong," said Tobaiwa, as he dug foundations for a house. "If some say what we are doing in unlawful, they must have a roof over their head."

"We have occupied the land and we now divide it between ourselves," another person said, "it is easier, safer and quicker than to wait for the government to do it."

Hundreds of people, mainly women, have gathered to support the workers, singing independence war songs in their native Shona language and shouting slogans against white farmers and the opposition to President Robert Mugabe's government.

Nora, whose husband is busy building a large house, is impatient to move out of the overcrowded township where the couple and their eight children live in three rooms with his parents.

"We could not stand this life any more," she said. "This scheme is something we never even hoped for."

Sitiya said houses with ten bedrooms were planned at the site.

But questioned on the financial transactions involved in distributing the plots of land, the war veteran leader suddenly became nervous.

He confirmed that those who were benefiting from the scheme were soldiers, police officers, former detainees and war widows who had paid a sign-up fee of 230 Zimbabwean dollars (four US dollars) and 1,000 Zimbabwean dollars per month.

One of the buyers, who preferred to remain unnamed, confirmed he had paid the veterans "a much bigger amount of money," but would not say how much. "You have to abide by the rules of the game," he said.

Rothmans International was not available for comment on Friday.

The veterans are in a head on conflict with the Harare municipal council which in theory is responsible for distributing land for construction of new homes.

Low-cost housing in the area is in short supply as increasing numbers of villagers have begun flooding into the suburbs of the capital.

Sitiya condemned the authorities' failure to act to help those in need and rejected statements by the government that veterans could not take on the government's role of redistributing land.

Thousands of war veterans and their supporters have invaded some 1,600 white-owned farms since February. At least four white farmers and three black labourers were killed in the ensuing violence.

On many of the farms, the occupiers have issued death threats and eviction notices to the owners and beaten and raped black labourers, with little if any police response.

The veterans have been closely allied with Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party since they began "invading" farms. But since Mugabe narrowly won legislative elections in June, many veterans have become disenchanted with the government which is increasingly embarrassed by the invasions.

"Mugabe can't have it both ways," Sitiya said. "He cannot ask us to occupy the farms before the elections and then tell us to go home when he feels he has saved his skin."
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LETTERS/OPINIONS Friday   4  , August
 
Invasions will destroy our agriculture-based economy

8/4/00 11:44:37 AM (GMT +2)

Learnmore Ndlovu, Vainona - Harare

IF ANYBODY ever needed a reminder of the adverse effects the nation will suffer as a result of the farm invasions, think about this simple example which affects a large portion of the population.

In January 1999 paraffin cost $1,70 a litre. By June 2000 paraffin had risen in price to $6,58 and only last month paraffin jumped in price to $15,01 more than doubling the price.
What was the cause or justification for the latest increase in the price of paraffin?
The answer is very simple. The shortage of foreign currency, caused primarily by the invasion of farms as these resulted in the loss of exports from the agricultural sector.
The loss of tourism and other foreign currency-earning activities has not helped the situation either.
The cost of financing the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has only helped to worsen the situation.
One would expect the needs of the majority of the population to be of greater importance than the needs of the minority, namely a small select group of political leaders.
The rest of the population has to queue to buy inadequate supplies of paraffin because of the shortage of foreign currency.
One would, therefore, not expect to be told that the President is happy to spend $140 million on new cars that are not essential.
He should instead import enough paraffin to meet the requirements of the population.
There is a crying need to get the country’s priorities in the right order.
Hopefully, the new Cabinet and Parliament will reject the idea of buying new cars under our present economic conditions.
One would also not expect to be told that the outgoing incompetent ministers that have helped create the present economic hardships are to be allowed to buy their ministerial cars for 10 percent of their market value.
Anyone who thinks that the land invasions are justified and will solve their economic problems should think again.
If you are unhappy about the price of $15,01 a litre of paraffin now, and you continue to support the disruption of farming, you should not complain when paraffin costs you $30 in the very near future, assuming you are lucky enough to be able to find any in the first place.
Like it or not, the economy is dependent on agriculture.
Even the rural, sorry ruling, party Zanu PF acknowledges that. Without a healthy commercial farming sector, there will be no economy.
The President’s new cars will stand idle for lack of fuel, while we experience a level of poverty never before seen in Zimbabwe. Ask Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique, they have been there before us.
Sadly, history shows that we do not learn from the past mistakes.

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Zimbabwe Independent - Headlines - 4 August 2000
High Court orders vote recount in Marondera East
Brian Hungwe
MINISTER of Mines and Energy Sydney Sekeramayi’s political future hangs in the balance after the High Court this week ordered a recount of votes in his Marondera East constituency citing serious irregularities in the electoral process. This follows an application by the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) candidate.

Sekeremayi, the former Minister of State Security under which the shadowy Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) falls, won the election by a razor thin margin in the Marondera East constituency.

No immediate details of the recount could be obtained yesterday as the MDC candidate’s lawyer Brian Kagoro and Sekeramayi were reportedly locked in a meeting at Makombe building.

The counting was reported to have started by 11am.

The MDC candidate, Didymus Munenzva, lost by just 63 votes in a tightly contested poll that was marred by violence, and intimidation allegedly engineered by government-sponsored war veterans and Zanu PF supporters. Sekeramayi polled 10 692 votes against Munenzva’s 10 629.

MDC secretary-general Welshman Ncube told the Independent that some of the irregularities in the election were so serious that they were not only considering the nullification of the results but the disqualification of some of the Zanu PF candidates whom they believed violated the electoral laws.

“We will wait to see what action the courts will take, we have a very good case in most of these suits,” Ncube said.

Among some of the irregularities cited by Munenzva in his High Court application were the threats issued against MDC supporters by Sekeramayi to the effect that unspecified action was going to be taken against them.
“We have this evidence on tape,” Ncube said.

Ncube said that Sekeramayi pointed out that if MDC won, the government would go after its supporters after the election.

When Sekeramayi addressed his star rally in Marondera, thousands of people were frog-marched to the venue, shops were forced to close and intimidation was rife.

MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai told the Independent that the order for a recount showed that there could have been something terribly wrong in the poll.

Mugabe misleads Mbeki

Staff Writer/Reuter.

PRESIDENT Thabo Mbeki returned to South Africa on Wednesday with what he thought were concrete guarantees by Zimbabwe’s leaders that the problem of illegal land occupations had been settled once and for all. In return he would continue his efforts to persuade donors to unlock funds for land reform.

Yesterday he learnt he had been misled.

In talks in Harare on Wednesday Mbeki was assured that as part of the accelerated land reform strategy war veterans currently occupying commer- cial farms would be relocated to those identified for acquisition.

At a press conference at the end of Mbeki’s visit President Mugabe said the resettlement exercise would be completed this month. But yesterday he said in Bindura he had been misquoted. The war veterans would not be removed.

The contradiction appears to arise over whether his promise to resettle war veterans and other squatters referred to those that can be moved to the 804 farms the government is processing in accordance with its current land programme or the 3 000 it suddenly pulled out of a hat last weekend, in fact the 804 plus 2 237.

Despite the fact that the extra farms have only been proposed by Zanu PF’s land acquisition committees and not identified in terms of legal requirements, Mugabe is evidently proceeding on the assumption that they are part of government’s programme.

The South Africans have promised to broker international funding for land reform, in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme, on the understanding that there would be a return to the rule of law on the farms.

This was the understanding agreed at the Victoria Falls in April. But because Mugabe hasn’t fulfilled his side of the bargain international donors will probably not be forthcoming.

United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan has written to Mugabe urging an end to the land lawlessness. Last week a UN team was in Harare to underline the connection between a restoration of the rule of law and international funding for land reform.

The South Africans arrived on Wednesday with a ministerial team prepared to offer credit lines and other means of support for Zimbabwe’s rehabilitation. This would form part of a wider international package of assistance involving the IMF.

But yesterday’s developments could have sabotaged that. In addition to problems of legality in the acquisition of the newly-identified farms, there is the international perception that this is another land grab designed to propitiate Zanu PF’s land invaders. Productive farms and agricultural output will be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency.

The refusal of international funders to come on board will undermine efforts by the cabinet and permanent officials to regularise land reform (See Page 25).

Mugabe’s statement in Bindura yesterday that this is not the end to land seizures is likely to be seen as undoing progress made in talks with the South Africans.

“Whatever we do after the 3 000 farms will be purely complementary, but we are not stopping there,” he said.

Mugabe lashed out at his critics, calling them imperialists and saying an opposition strike that paralysed the country on Wednesday was meaningless.

“Our roots are in the soil and not in the factories. We can never allow a return to racial oppression,” he said.

Threat of another stayaway

Dumisani Muleya
THE Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) yesterday warned of the prospect of another damaging stayaway if government refused to heed calls to restore the rule of law on farms and end the assault of civilians by the army in the townships.

ZCTU acting president Isaac Matongo said Wednesday’s industrial action was a shot across President Mugabe’s bows designed to get him to address issues of public concern. If he remains defiant, Matongo said, the labour movement would stage a longer stayaway to compel him to act on state-orchestrated anarchy.

Addressing a Zimbabwe Farmers Union meeting in Bindura yesterday Muga- be dismissed Wednesday’s stayaway as meaningless.

“The ZCTU leadership will meet soon and we will then call for a general council meeting after that,” Matongo said.

“We reduced the stayaway to one day just to give him (Mugabe) a warning but next time it will be serious,” he said.

Dismissing allegations that the strike was organised in sympathy with white farmers whom the government has accused of resisting land reform, Matongo said that was unfounded.

“Workers want law and order maintained. Just this afternoon (yesterday) we received reports that people were being beaten up in Mhondoro. Workers are being harassed and we don’t need somebody to tell us that. It has nothing to do with farmers,” he said.

Matongo — who is also the chairman of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) — said the ZCTU comprised workers who belonged to different parties and accusations that it was serving MDC interests were inaccurate.

“There are Zanu PF people within ZCTU. It’s for workers and not members of a particular party,” said Matongo who has been accused of engineering the stayaway to demonstrate the MDC’s political muscle.

“It’s nothing to do with politics. It’s a workers issue,” he said.

Asked if the strike had not worsened the economic crisis, Matongo retorted: “What is more important: people’s lives or the economy?

People should be free to build the economy and how can we do that when people are being harassed and there is a state of lawlessness?”

Business leaders interviewed said the strike would deepen economic woes.

But others said the stayaway would not have the same kind of impact as lawlessness and disruption of agricultural activity. They said if government was genuinely concerned about the economy, it should stop anarchy.

“It’s going to have significant consequences, no doubt about it,” said Farai Zizhou, Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) chief economist.

“The fact that it came at a time when the economy is sick will worsen the problems,” he said.

But Tony Hawkins, professor of business studies at the University of Zimbabwe, said the strike won’t have much impact.

“I don’t believe it had much impact on the economy at all. Clearly the real damage on the economy has been caused by what government is doing on farms and encouraging lawlessness,” he said.
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BBC - Friday, 4 August, 2000, 14:10 GMT 15:10 UK
Namibia's burning land issue

White farmers own half the arable land

George Eykyn examines how Namibia is addressing its own land crisis.
Ten years on from independence Namibia's economy is on the slide. A third of the workforce is unemployed.

We know that we are sitting on a powderkeg.
PM Hage Geingob

This former German colony is now confronting the problem facing all its neighbours: How to redistribute the land.

Prime Minister Hage Geingob admits the government is worried saying it is the one issue that could disturb Namibia's peace.

"We know that we are sitting on a powderkeg. It is an emotive issue. But it has to be handled by leadership with care and in a fair way."

Farming

About 4,000, mostly white, commercial farmers own just under half the arable land.

Unemployment for school leavers is a potential time bomb

For men like Helmut Halenke, a third generation farmer of German descent, it's a struggle.

Returns are a tenth what they were 30 years ago.

Mr Halenke and others like him were alarmed by the violence they saw unleashed in Zimbabwe under the banner of a demand for land.

Namibia's Swapo government is committed to the principle of "willing buyer/willing seller" - which means no one is forced to sell up, but if they do the state gets first refusal.

Hundreds of farms have been offered. But few have been bought.

About half of the money the government set aside to buy commercial farms during the past five years has not even been spent.

White farmers blame the slow progress on government bureaucracy.

Helmut Halenke: Concerned at events in Zimbabwe

Mr Halenke said he was worried when he heard the ruling party talk recently of expropriating land, legally forcing farmers to sell.

"It's very political, it just stirs up the political mood of the farmers and other citizens, " he says.

"Because today it's a farm and tomorrow it's a mine or a bank or whatever. So this is not the right way, and I don't think they will do it because there are a lot of farms they can buy."

In May, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe stood alongside his close friend Namibian President Sam Nujoma, in the north of this country.

He urged black Namibians to copy Zimbabwe's solution to land reform and was cheered.

The government's silence caused concern among its own white farmers, diplomats and investors.

It insists it won't interfere in the way that Zimbabwe has chosen to deal with the land issue.

But Mr Geingob has told the BBC that Namibia would not tolerate illegal invasions of farms. He said the rule of law would apply, and unlawful actions would be put down.

Zimbabwe revisited?

On the streets, land reform is not yet the hot issue.

Unemployment has risen to 35% and is probably higher among the young.

PM Hage Geingob: Has ruled out farm invasions

Each year as many as 20,000 school leavers emerge to compete for just 3,000 new jobs.

Public debt is also climbing - the result of successive years of budget deficits.

About 75% of Namibians live or work on communal farm land, owned by the state.

Their representatives, who want to see swifter progress on the land issue, argue that the distribution of farmland is inequitable, and that the government is treating white commercial farmers with kid gloves.

Paul Vleermuis of the Namibia National Farmers Union says there will be a lot of social dissatisfaction if there isn't speedy progress on redistributing land to those without.

"We might have something like what Zimbabwe is happening now. But we are not saying it will happen. It is now the right time to pro-actively look at alternative ways of land distribution," he says.

Alternative

One alternative would involve employing thousands of people to clear the bush which is encroaching rampantly on farms.

The reclaimed land would be split between the original commercial owner and black Namibians.

It is Stan Webster's idea and he has $1m from the African Development Bank but that depends on his own government backing it too.

He requires about $150,000 to kick-start the proposal.

The idea, which Mr Webster wants to turn into a pilot project, is ecologically sound: every twig and blade of grass cleared is recycled to make brickettes which can be either be burnt, or used for building.

Stan Webster, who was raised in Zimbabwe, says Namibia's white farmers and government alike should have no illusions over how fast the land issue could become explosive - a channel for anger and frustration, caused by unemployment and economic hardship, but vented on the farmers.

"Six months ago, Zimbabwe was not a lawless country. But within a very short time, everything literally collapsed in tatters," he said.

"We were too idle. We saw the candle burning, and we didn't do anything about it. We should be very conscious of that here in Namibia - our candle is burning."
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A Joke

The phone rings at the ZRP headquarters.  'Hello?' 'Is this the ZRP?'
"Yes, what do you want?' 'I'm calling about my neighbor Adrian Thibodaux.  He
is
hiding marijuana inside his firewood.' 'Thank you very much for your
call,
sir.' The next day the ZRP agents descend on Thibodaux's house.  They
search
the shed where the firewood is kept.  Using axes, they break open every
piece of wood, but find no marijuana.  They have nothing but unkind
words
for Thibodaux and leave.
The phone rings at Thibodaux's house.
'Hey Adrian!  Did the ZRP come?' 'Yeah.' Did they chop the firewood?'
'Yep.'
'Great, now it's your turn to call.  I need my garden plowed.'

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