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The land audit and reform
Media Monitoring
Project Zimbabwe
Extracted from Weekly Media Update 2003-36
Monday September 7th - Sunday September 14th 2003
The week saw
the Presidential Land Review Committee led by Charles Utete present
the long-awaited land audit report to President Robert Mugabe, amid
reports that chaos continued to reign supreme over the contentious
land reform programme.
In their coverage of the issues, the government-controlled media
sought to present government as committed to restoring order and
stamping out corruption that has marred the land distribution exercise.
As a result, they conveniently failed to investigate and expose
government officials, who had violated the one-man one-farm policy.
Instead they merely churned out claims by authorities that top officials
were returning extra land they had seized. It was therefore hardly
surprising that they did not attempt to expose some of the nitty-gritties
of the findings of Utete’s committee, which the private media did.
Besides investigating the details of the audit report, the private
media continued to highlight the anarchy that has engulfed the farming
sector ever since the land reforms began. In fact, their tenacity
in covering the land issue was epitomized by The Financial Gazette
(11/9) story Land scandal unfolds- ZANU PF heavyweights.
The article, which coincided with the presentation of the land audit
report, carried a list of top ruling party officials who had allegedly
violated government policy and acquired more than one farm. Although
the article only highlighted the extent of land grabbing by top
officials in Matabeleland, it indeed gave an insight into how some
officials had allegedly milked Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform
for their benefit.
None of the
media has followed up on The Financial Gazette’s findings
by investigating the situation in other provinces.
Instead, ZBC (11/9, evening bulletins) merely gave a platform to
officials who were implicated by The Financial Gazette to
defend themselves. In its 8pm bulletin, ZTV quoted ZANU PF Chairman
John Nkomo as saying, "For some reason some people’s
names will appear on lists when in fact the individuals have not
been informed…people just come up with names and come up with figures."
Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi cobbled a conspiracy theory to
defend his alleged multiple-farm ownership alleging he was included
in the list by people who "are trying by all means to
scandalise me and tarnish my image, but I am very clean".
He further attributed his alleged involvement in land grabbing to
people who were trying to neutralise ZANU PF stronghold of Beitbridge
by getting rid of him. Even Matabeleland North Governor Obert Mpofu,
who reportedly handed over an extra farm to government, dismissed
reports on multiple land ownership by chefs saying they emanated
"from those opposed to the land reform programme. They
want to show a picture of failure…"
However, ZANU PF senior official Shuvai Mahofa, transcended patronage.
ZTV (11/09, 6pm) quoted her corroborating private media reports
saying, "what is bad is the chef has a farm and the wife
has a farm…(yet) they are one family." ZTV did not
challenge her to give names of such individuals. But this was hardly
surprising as it jellied well with government-controlled media’s
attempt to pre-empt the land audit’s findings by giving the impression
that those who had multiple farms were already adhering to President
Mugabe’s call that they should give them up. For instance, The
Herald, Chronicle (9/9) and ZTV (9/9, 7am) quoted Nkomo
as saying "ZANU PF officials and other people"
had handed over "30 000 hectares of excess land"
to government. Apart from naming Mpofu as one of the individuals,
who had handed over land, the rest of the culprits remained faceless.
Without challenging Nkomo to give other names, The Herald
and Chronicle then quoted him trying to explain the causes
of multiple farm ownership saying some people had benefited from
both the A1 and A2 resettlement models and that, "some
people…acquired farms in different provinces and ecological regions
in a bid to widen their farming prospects".
But the papers
were oblivious to the fact that such excuses were far from controlling
the damage but merely buttressed reports that the whole exercise
was chaotic. Further, the two ZIMPAPERS dailies echoed without verification,
government claims that 300,000 families had been resettled under
the A1 model.
However, The Zimbabwe Independent (12/09) disputed
this figure. It reported that the land audit committee had discovered
that "only about 130 000 families have been allocated
land..." adding that the figures "were exaggerated
to justify the grabbing of large tracts of land…" Following
such revelations of land grab, President Mugabe was quoted as promising
the land audit committee that, "We shall take full cognisance
of your findings...we will take urgent action", The
Daily News (12/9). The paper then seemingly interpreted these
remarks to mean that Mugabe might sack government officials implicated
in the land scam. The Sunday Mirror was equally optimistic
saying, "…indications…so far filtered through to us point
to a serious resolve by the head of state to correct anomalies embedded
in the country’s land reform." However, the two papers
failed to fully explain why government would this time act on Utete’s
findings when it has failed to thoroughly do so in the past.
Further, except for The Sunday Mirror, none of the media
tried to draw parallels between the findings of the recent land
audit with the one done under Flora Bhuka.
Meanwhile, the private media continued to expose the chaos that
surrounds the whole resettlement programme. For example, The
Daily News (9/09) revealed that rather than heeding
Mugabe’s call to hand over extra farms they had grabbed, some of
them were actually doing the exact opposite. It reported that war
veterans’ leader, Mike Moyo, had clashed with Mines Minister Edward
Chindori-Chininga over a farm Chindori-Chininga allegedly wants
"to grab from him to add to two other farms the minister
already has in Mazowe district." The same issue also
pointed out that despite Mugabe’s call "no Cabinet minister
has publicly surrendered the extra farms…"
To further highlight that government’s one-man one-farm policy seemed
to be an illusion, The Daily News (12/09) quoted Justice
for Agriculture as having said that 1, 500 single-farm owners had
each lost their properties to land reform.
The same paper (10/09) revealed that besides lack of a clear policy
on land acquisition, farm invasions were continuing. It reported
that ZANU PF supporters and a retired army colonel had forcibly
taken over the Lion and Cheetah Park outside Harare. The report
further stated that the invaders had refused to have the animals
relocated thus endangering the lives of people in surrounding communities.
In another report, the paper also alleged that unnamed government
officials in Matabeleland had renewed pressure on Halglen Animal
Conservancy owners to leave, putting the lives of 3,200 animals
at risk. In fact, The Daily News (10/09) disclosed that game
ranchers had "since the beginning of the government’s
fast-track land reform lost up to 90 percent of their safari-hunting
game..."
As if to confirm such reports, The Sunday Mirror (14/09)
reported that the Department of National Parks and Wildlife had
"barred influential politicians and businessmen allocated
properties in Matabeleland North province under the A2 resettlement
scheme from carrying out any hunting activities".
Studio 7 (08/09) reported that government officials were even evicting
newly resettled farmers together with commercial farmers. Nevertheless,
The Sunday Mail (14/09) insisted that the success of the
land reform programme is "not questionable."
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