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The forgotten ex-farm workers
Inter Press Service News Agency
February 09, 2004

By Stanley Karombo

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=22319

HARARE - Mathew Gondo was made homeless at the height of Zimbabwe's chaotic land-reform programme, which began in 2000. He was a foreman at Tate's Farm, about 120 kilometers north of the capital, Harare.

His employer fled following the violent farm invasions by pro-government war veterans of Zimbabwe's 1970s liberation struggle. Gondo told IPS he has decided to stay put on the farm since he has nowhere to go.

"My parents worked at this farm for the whole of their lives. My father came from Mozambique as a teenager. He married my mother here. and I was born here. There is nowhere I can call home besides this place," said Gondo, who was born on the farm 50 years ago.

Like Gondo, many of the former farm workers have foreign background. Some came from Zambia and Malawi. And most of them cannot return to their countries of origin, given the huge transport fares and settlement expenses involved. Others, who are second generation in Zimbabwe, have lost contacts with their relatives, if they have any, in their countries of origin.

Winnet Banda, a widow, is also holed up at his former employer's farm. She hopes one day, David Smith, her former employer, will come back. Banda lost her husband four years ago.

"Mr. Smith was a good man..a very good man, indeed. He used to give us food every month-end. Now things are bad. I will die here because I have nowhere to go. My hopes are now on the elections. Maybe after the next election Mr. Smith will be allowed to come back".

Zimbabwe's controversial land-reform programme has not spared children either. Their parents, who are already financially crippled, cannot afford their school fees. Some of the children have vision and dreams. One of them, Tinashe, 12, who is showing signs of malnutrition, says when he grows up he wants to become a medical doctor so that he can look after his mother.

The former farm workers get some help from Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ), a non-governmental organisation in Harare. The group's spokesperson says the new settlers, who have been allocated land by government, are increasingly becoming impatient with the farm workers' continued presence on their property. They are now threatening them with eviction.

About 200,000 ex-farm workers, with their estimated one million dependants, spend most of their time searching for work or food. About 94 percent of Zimbabwe's commercial farmers were issued with eviction notices.

FCTZ's Takaitei Bote says her organisation provides food to the farm workers.

"We have moved in as an organisation to respond because they (farm workers) have become very vulnerable. We've had to move in with a general feeding as well as a supplementary feeding programme."

"The general feeding programme is targeting 100,000 farm workers with rations of mealie meal (maize flour), cooking oil and dry beans. With the children aged between six months to 12 years we are running a supplementary programme at pre-schools and primary schools as a way to mitigate the impact of the crisis on the farm worker households.

"They need all the assistance that can be made available to them because they are in such a difficult situation," Bote said.

To make end's meet, some of the former farm workers in Mashonaland Central Province, about 120 kms north of Harare, have started panning alluvial gold along Mpfurudzi River.

Some of them are unaware of the effects of their panning, which include erosion and possible siltation of the river. Some panners told IPS they had no choice as they had no other means of survival.

Josephine Zulu says she has eleven children whose father died of AIDS last year. They live in a temporary shelter along the Mupfurudzi River, with three children, who have also begun panning.

"We're panning because we want to survive. If we cannot pan gold then we will die of hunger. When war vets took our farm, I could not find any job. I have to look after all these children.and the children have also to help me to pan gold," said Zulu.

Some displaced ex-farm workers and their families live around Harare. Though born in Zimbabwe, they are not regarded as citizens and should, according to President Robert Mugabe, go back to where they came from.

About 30 percent of the 2,900 white farmers issued with eviction notices have left the country to explore farming opportunities in Zambia, Mozambique, Uganda, Botswana, New Zealand, Canada and Australia.

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