• 2003: A Terrible, Wonderful Year
• Zimbabwe Claims Recovery of Seized Land from Loyalists Who Took Too Much
• Government promises help in Zimbabwe passport row
• Zimbabwe sneak home
• A return to the east-west division would create a niche for him in no-man's land
• Agriculture Badly Affected By HIV/Aids

      The Zimbabwe government has said it has recovered more 200,000
hectares of formerly white-owned land from ruling party loyalists who have
taken more than one farm. Minister of Special Affairs in President Robert
Mugabe's office John Nkomo, who also is responsible for managing land
ownership, said the amount of land recovered from the ruling party loyalists
is changing all the time.
      He said he would not know for some time how much land had been finally
recovered from those who grabbed more than they are allowed, but that it
would be redistributed to people who applied for land, but had so far not
received any.

      The few white commercial farmers left on their properties said
Thursday they can see no evidence that Cabinet ministers, judges, bank
managers, senior army personnel and other leaders, have abandoned any of the
farms they took.

      Mac Crawford, who heads an association of ranchers in the southern
Matabeleland province, said "most of them do not live on the land, and are
careful to cover up what they have taken."

      When President Mugabe sent loyalists to evict white farmers in
February 2000, he told Zimbabweans the future agricultural policy would be
"one man, one farm."

      But over Christmas, Agriculture Minister Joseph Made, Deputy Transport
Minister Chris Mushowe, and a senior civil servant, Joseph Mutowenyika, went
onto a farm in eastern Zimbabwe and told the white owners that they must
leave the land immediately. They acted against a recent court order
prohibiting the confiscation of the farm.

      The majority shareholder in the farm, Edwin Moyo, said the three
officials were claiming the land for themselves, even though each of them
already has at least one farm.

      The farm, now Zimbabwe's largest exporter of vegetables, employs 6,000
people. Mr. Made was not available for comment Thursday.

      The government's land distribution program has had a disastrous effect
on Zimbabwe's agricultural production. Once a food exporter, Zimbabwe now
depends on the World Food Program to feed five million people, or nearly
half the population.

The Government has promised a sympathetic hearing for veteran human rights
activist Judith Todd after Zimbabwe officials refused to give her a
passport.

Judith Todd was born in Zimbabwe but officials in Robert Mugabe's Government
have refused to issue her a Zimbabwe passport, saying she is a citizen of
New Zealand where her father, Garfield Todd, was born.

Mr Todd was Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was then known,
from 1953 to 1958 and he and his daughter were outspoken supporters of
Zimbabwe's independence.

In 2002, Ms Todd won a prolonged court battle for a one-year temporary
passport to attend a memorial service for Mr Todd in London.But Zimbabwean
officials have refused to renew the passport.

Recent citizenship laws require Zimbabweans holding a second nationality to
formally renounce it.

Ms Todd said she never took up her New Zealand citizenship but said she
would reluctantly claim it to get a passport to allow her to travel for
business and political purposes.

Yesterday, the Government's duty minister, Health Minister Annette King,
said Ms Todd was entitled to citizenship by descent and she would get a
sympathetic hearing.

Ms King said New Zealand officials would facilitate travel for her but she
needed to contact New Zealand officials in Pretoria, South Africa.

Ms Todd says about two million Zimbabweans, including black descendants of
migrants from neighboring countries, are in a similar situation to hers.

She accused the Mugabe regime of being "intent on wiping out the citizenship
and voting rights of any Zimbabwean of whatever colour or background thought
to be against the ruling party".

Mr Mugabe, who has so far expelled about 4200 white farmers from their land
and distributed it to cronies, accuses white Zimbabweans and "totemless
aliens" of masterminding opposition to his rule.

Zimbabwe's Daily News newspaper, which Ms Todd partly owned, was forcibly
shut by the regime in September.

Police have barred staff from producing the paper despite last week's second
court judgment that the newspaper be re-opened.

- NZPA, INDEPENDENT

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

December 31, 2003
Posted to the web December 31, 2003

Labour losses due to HIV/AIDS have badly affected production

Zimbabwe's struggling agricultural sector, already hard hit by drought,
shortages of inputs and the fast-track land reform programme, has also been
badly affected by HIV/AIDS.

In its latest report the UN Relief and Recovery Unit (RRU) noted that
"productivity has been severely affected in the agricultural sector as a
direct result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the country".

Research indicates a 43 percent HIV/AIDS prevalence rate on farms, compared
to a national infection level of 24.6 percent, with the highest number of
HIV-positive people in the 15 to 23 age range - "the core of the
agricultural labour force".

The research, conducted for the UN Development Programme and soon to be
published in the "Zimbabwe Human Development Report 2003", found that 23
percent of labour losses among farming communities were due to HIV/AIDS.

As a result, the total area cropped in Zimbabwe had declined by about 39
percent. "Crop yield has declined by 59 percent, and marketed output
declines of 66 percent could be experienced in Zimbabwe's agricultural
sector due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic," the RRU said.

The impact of HIV/AIDS on agriculture has seen both "labour quantity and
quality compromised through incapacitation and deaths". This included the
"loss of agricultural extension workers through death, illness and discharge
on medical grounds", while a "significant amount of man-hours have been lost
[through] increased absenteeism because of illness, caring for the sick or
attending funerals".

The research indicated a statistical decline in livestock and crop
production among communal HIV/AIDS-affected households.

Investment levels were also lower, as "resources meant for agricultural
production are increasingly being diverted to care for the sick, and for
funeral expenses".

In response to the crisis the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural
Resettlement has established an HIV/AIDS desk to spearhead HIV/AIDS
programmes. Some of its interventions include the distribution of condoms
and holding awareness workshops on HIV/AIDS.

However, these initiatives had been hindered by a lack of resources, the RRU
said.

The Unit noted that the combined impact of HIV/AIDS, the macroeconomic
policy environment and Zimbabwe's "severe economic decline", were the main
causal factors of the humanitarian crisis in the country.

"These factors will continue to simultaneously erode self-reliance at
household level, and the quality of essential basic services at the national
level, leading to rising vulnerability," the study predicted.

Another poor farming season has been forecast for 2003-04 due to the acute
shortage of inputs, including seeds, fertiliser and farming implements.

The Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) recently noted that "over the past four
seasons, production has either remained static or declined, due to a number
of factors beyond the control of general farmers".

The government's fast-track land reform programme and drought have been
blamed for the downturn in production. But planning a recovery for the
sector, which is vital to both household and national income, is going to be
difficult with the added complication of HIV/AIDS.

"With the agricultural sector threatened in this way, and at a time when
food security is already a major cause for concern, urgent short- and
medium-term initiatives in the HIV/AIDS sector are required," the RRU
warned.