Life without a destination

Life without a destination

http://www.irinnews.org

 

Photo: IRIN

Many former farm workers have become IDPs

GOROMONZI, 3 October 2012 (IRIN) - For more than a decade, farm worker Maria Bhamu, 48, and her 10-year-old grandson have wandered across Zimbabwe's Mashonaland East Province, enduring a string of evictions in the aftermath of the country’s fast-track land reform. 

Their itinerant life began in 2001, a year after President Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF government began implementing the land reform programme, which saw thousands of white farmers - who employed an estimated 320,000 to 350,000 farm workers - displaced to make way for landless black Zimbabweans. 

Her husband was seriously injured when their employer’s farm was taken over; he later died. Bhamu settled on a nearby farm where she was hired as a labourer, but several years later, that farm was also taken over. 

She now lives in a plastic-and-cardboard shelter in rural Goromonzi, about 40km southeast of the capital Harare. Her grandson begs for food and money nearby. The police have warned her that they intend to destroy her makeshift shelter. 

“Since 2001, when our employer was chased away by the war veterans, I have been moving from one place to another and, as you can see, this is where I have ended up. Who knows, you might find me gone if you return tomorrow, but then, I don’t know my next destination,” Bhamu told IRIN. 

First, it was black people invading white farmers’ land and now it is resettled farmers against their black comrades

Her most recent eviction was in February 2012, when she and 15 other families were forced from a farm about 12km away after a high-ranking government official claimed ownership from another resettled farmer. 

“Since the beginning of the land reform programme, things have not been stable. First, it was black people invading white farmers’ land and now it is resettled farmers against their black comrades, but it is us [farm workers] who suffer the most,” Bhamu said. 

Unknown number of IDPs 

Thabani Nyoni, spokesperson for Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) - an umbrella organization of more than 350 NGOs - told IRIN, “Even though we don’t have specific figures of affected former farm workers, I can vouchsafe that the numbers are disturbingly high. The land reform programme created a number of problems for farm workers, problems that still persist.” 

Although the government has called for a more comprehensive nationwide survey of internally displaced persons (IDPs), one has yet to be conducted, contributing to “the lack of information on the scale of continuing internal displacement,” said a December 2011 report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). 

Whenever ownership disputes arise, the workers are disregarded

“Whenever ownership disputes arise, the workers are disregarded,” Nyoni said. “They lose employment and, as if that is not enough, they lose their right to shelter. What is saddening is that these victims are suffering in silence as they don’t know who to talk to and hardly anything is being done by government to address their plight.” 

Nyoni said a tense political atmosphere is complicating humanitarian interventions, because the displacements mostly involve high-ranking officials. Aid agencies and members of civil society fear being labelled political enemies for helping out farm workers, he said. 

A 2008 report by IDMC noted, “Indeed, so sensitive is the issue of displacement in Zimbabwe that IDPs… are not even called IDPs but instead have come to be referred to as ‘mobile and vulnerable populations’”. 

Women and children 

After her husband died, Bhamu tried to find shelter at her home town, Mutoko, but the community leadership turned her down. “The headman said he could not give me a place to build a home because I left the area a long time ago. He also said I did not have an identity card, which I lost when we moved from one place to another, but I think he gave me all those excuses just because I am a woman, and they think I sympathise with whites,” she said. 

Bhamu’s grandson does not have a birth certificate; he has attended school only sporadically. 

Women and children are worst affected by the displacements, Nyoni observed. “Women, who [are] about 50 percent of the victims, face the burden of adjusting to new situations through livelihood activities such as fetching firewood, looking for food and caring for the children, who suffer the shocks that come with violence-related movements,” he said. 

About 10 families that were ejected in April from a farm in Norton, about 50km west of Harare, have set up camp along a nearby river, joining about 100 other people living in an informal settlement there. 

“The government should give us land to build our own houses,” Ben Bhauleni, 30, one of the evictees, told IRIN. “We don’t have money to join housing cooperatives, and we fail to understand why we should continue to be victims of other people’s disputes over the farms." 

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

ZANU PF takes over grain loan scheme in Masvingo

ZANU PF takes over grain loan scheme in Masvingo

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Tererai Karimakwenda
21 September 2012

A government scheme meant to assist villagers in need of grain has been 
hijacked by ZANU PF officials in Masvingo, who are selecting only members of 
their own party as beneficiaries.

Reports from Rupike, Tugwane, Mavizhu, Muchibwa, and Maburutse villages in 
Masvingo province said that villagers are facing starvation while ZANU PF 
politicians abuse the government scheme.

According to a report from the Crisis Coalition, villages had, “properly put 
their names forward and submitted photocopies of their identity particulars”. 
But local councillors and traditional leaders are being used to alter 
distribution lists and only ZANU PF members are receiving seeds and 
fertilizer, meant for all in need.

A team from the Crisis Coalition spoke to a villager who said: “We are 
starving here, we have no food. The major problem is that when food is 
distributed we are not given because they say we are MDC members. Lots of 
food is being distributed but we are left in the cold because of our 
political inclination”.

The strategy of politicizing food donations has been used by ZANU PF 
regularly over the years, to try and increase their support base ahead of 
elections. The donations are usually accompanied by threats to the 
recipients, who are ordered to vote for Robert Mugabe and ZANU PF candidates 
if they accept the food.

The same strategy has already been used in other parts of the country, 
especially in Manicaland, where villagers are being told to report the 
incidents to the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (JOMIC). But 
the provincial JOMIC teams have no power to change anything.

The loan scheme was introduced by the inclusive government last year. The 
idea was to assist communal farmers who needed grain from the Grain 
Marketing Board but could not afford it. The scheme gives them a loan of 
seeds, which is meant to be repaid after their next harvest.

Chihuri urged to declare ‘illicit’ roadblock cash

Chihuri urged to declare ‘illicit’ roadblock cash

http://www.swradioafrica.com/

By Alex Bell
01 October 2012

Zimbabwe’s police commissioner Augustine Chihuri is being urged to publicly 
declare how much money is being collected by police officers at the many 
roadblocks across the country.

The Coalition Against Corruption (CAC) last week handed over a letter and 
petition to the police’s general headquarters in Harare, in an effort to 
promote transparency and accountability in the police force. The CAC 
director Terry
Mutsvangwa said the public had the right to know where the funds collected 
at roadblocks were being channelled to.

“As CAC, we are not saying Commissioner Chihuri is abusing the funds, but we 
are just demanding to know where the money is going,” he said.

The number of roadblocks across the country has for months enraged 
Zimbabweans, who are forced to pay on-the-spot fines for a range of 
‘offences’. A source who recently visited Zimbabwe told SW Radio Africa that 
the roadblock situation is “out of control.” The source counted 29 separate 
roadblocks on a single journey from Harare to Bulawayo last month, adding 
that the police “would even take your drinks if you didn’t have any money.”

Public affairs commentator Precious Shumba told SW Radio Africa that the 
roadblocks are widely condemned as “a corrupt, illegal, unjustified burden 
on the public.”

“People are being asked to part with their money at every single roadblock 
for anything the police say they have done wrong. People feel like 
criminals. They are inconvenienced all the time at these extortionate 
roadblocks,” Shumba said.

He welcomed the CAC petition for raising awareness about the issue, but said 
it was unlikely to make a real difference.

“I doubt the police will take it seriously, because the police justification 
is that the roadblocks are for policing and they are maintaining law and 
order,” Shumba said. 

GMB Officials, Villagers Selling Food Aid in Zimbabwe

GMB Officials, Villagers Selling Food Aid in Zimbabwe

http://www.voazimbabwe.com

Gibbs Dube
19.09.2012

Some senior Grain Marketing Board (GMB) officials and villagers in Gwanda 
Central are reportedly diverting drought relief aid and selling it for up to 
$10 a bucket as the food situation deteriorates in Zimbabwe.

According to parliamentary agriculture committee member, Patrick Dube, the 
diversion of drought relief aid has left thousands of people without food in 
most parts of Matabeleleand South.

Dube said a 10 kilogram bucket of maize which fetches $5 in retail shops is 
now being sold for $10 dollars in the black market.

He claimed that the maize is being diverted by some politicians linked to 
President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party and several GMB officials who were 
not available for comment.

“One of the local councilors is working hand in hand in these shady grain 
deals with as aspiring senator linked to the former ruling party,” said 
Dube.

He said the government needs to intervene to stop the illegal maize deals.

The United Nations World Food Program said recently that it is closely 
monitoring the crippling drought situation in the country and lobbying 
stakeholders for the provision of food and other resources to the affected 
families.

Zimbabwe has pledged 35,000 tonnes of maize and the WFP is working with 
other organizations to secure additional aid.

Close to 1.6 million people, 60 percent higher than the one million that 
needed assistance during the last lean season, will need food aid by March 
next year.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom and Australia have provided $11.5 million to 
help Zimbabwean smallholders farmers under the food and agricultural 
organisation’s agricultural inputs program.