leo James Muzcndidya
Land, economy and racial politics in the 19905
By the beginning of the 1990s, it was clear that the country faced a crisis of land
use and land allocation. By 1987, the population in the Communal Lands had
risen to 5.1m and the national average population density was 36 people per
square km, up from 3.9m and 27 in 1g82.'° The failure of the government to
deliver land in the wake of continued land hunger posed a challenge to national
stability as peasants became more militant in their demands. During the 1990s,
land occupations expanded in form and content, as peasants, sometimes led by
chiefs and local war veterans, sporadically invaded not only private land but also
state land. At the same time, the urban poor were increasingly cultivating both
state and municipal lands in a bid to supplement their food resources.'"
While in the 198os the government and land owners had managed to control
these occupations, often by violent eviction, the intensity of the occupations in the
19905 called for a different approach."' To speed up the process of acquisition,
the government introduced the Land Acquisition Act (No. 3 of 1992), two years
after the expiry of the Lancaster House constitution. The Act sought to do away
with the 'willing-seller, willing-buyer' principle and empower the government
to compulsorily acquire land for resettlement. However, very little progress was
made, and the government's revised targets of resettling some 110,000 families
on 5 million hectares never materialised.w7 A number of factors accounted for
this failure, including government's failure to commit sufficient resources to the
programme, and commercial farmers' resistance.'c's
For this and other reasons, Zimbabwean society continued to be seriously
divided along the lines of race. Black opposition to the inequality took an
increasingly racial form. Frustrated black business people, for instance, formed
pressure groups to push both government and white capital to create more
opportunities for their members, while student demonstrations for increases
in government support grants were often accompanied by attacks on white
motorists or their properties in the affluent northern suburbs.'"9 Though black
See Zimbabwe, Population Census, 1987.
'5 Mayo, 'The Land and Agrarian Question in Zimbabwr', p. 8; Nloyo. Land &farm tincivr
Structural Adjustment in Zimbabwe.
"6
J. Herbst, State Politics in Zimbabwe (Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications,
1990); Mayo, 'The Land and Agrarian Question in Zimbabwe', p. 8.
Mayo, '111e Political Economy of Land Acquisition'.
"'r
wm When the government designated 1,471 farms for compulsory acquisition in December
1997, a total of 1,393 objections were received, of which 510 were upheld. See Zimbabwe,
Report of the Presidential Laud Review Committee Under the Chairmanship of Dr Charles
M. B. Utete (Harare: Government Printers, 2 vols., August 2003), p. 20,
1°9
Author's own experiences as a student and later employee at the University of Zimbabwe,
between 1988 and 1995.
B. Kutnertord, lieionging to the tarm(er): Farm workers, tarmers and tne sniffing pOLIIICS or
citizenship', in Hammar et aid. (eds.), Zimbabwe's Uqfinished Business, pp. 191-216.
188 James Muzondiciya
(1989). In November 1982, Zimbabwe was chosen by the OAT.) to hold one of
the non-permanent seats in the United Nations Security Council for two years,
and in 1986 chaired the NAM summit meeting held in Harare. As a member of
the UN, Zimbabwe was requested to contribute troops to the 2991 peacekeeping
mission in Angola.97
As chair of the Frontline States, Zimbabwe campaigned vigorously against
apartheid and South Africa's occupation of Namibia. The deployment of around
15,000 soldiers to defend its oil pipeline from Mozambique and to fight alongside
FRELIMO against the South Africa-backed RENAMO from 1982 to 1992, though
costly to the country in terms of both human and material resources, was seen
by many on the continent and in the Third World in general as an example of
selfless sacrifice."
However, from the late 198os onwards, Zimbabwe's positive record abroad
could no longer mask the growing social problems and contradictions at home.
These problems specifically intensified after 299o, following the country's adop-
tion of an IMF/World Bank economic structural adjustment programme.
The politics and economics of liberalisation, 1990 97 -
The gains made in the provision of social services were steadily eroded by the
economic decline of the 199os. A series of droughts led to a decline in agri-
cultural productivity and a drastic fall in exports, and the implementation of
the IMF/World Bank Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (E AP)
in 1991 saw average economic growth decline from 4 per cent to 0.9 per cent,
recovering to only 2.9 per cent in 1998/99. 99 Large numbers of workers were
retrenched as industries closed down, and as public spending was cut in line
with the structural adjustment policies. By 1994, government statistics revealed
that 20,710 workers had lost their jobs since the beginning of the economic
liberalisation programme; the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions estimated
97
J. Muzondidya and N. Samasuwo, ISS Country Profile: Zimbabwe (Pretoria: Institute for
Security Studies, 2007). Available at <http://www.issafrica_org>.
98
In the crisis years after 2000, the country has been able to rely on regional support from
countries with which it forged political and economic relations during the period of its struggle
against colonialism and apartheid — Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and Tanzania — to deflect
both local and international criticism over its misrule. The same history has enabled it to mobilise
moral and diplomatic support within the OAU and other international organisations such the
African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. For a more detailed examination of the way in
which Mugabe has exploited African and Third World solidarity in his current political battles,
see B. Raftopoulos, The Zimbabwean crisis and the challenges for the left', Journal of Southern
African Studies, 32(2), 2006, pp. 203-19. See also D. Chimanikire, 'Foreign and security policy
of Zimbabwe', in Darnoff and Laakso (eds.), From Liberation to Authoritarianism.
49
Kanyenze, 'The performance of the Zimbabwean eoanorny'.
From Buoyancy to Crisis, 1980- 1997 187
not have the right to reside in communal land or to vote in local government
elections."
Generally, all subject minorities continued to be excluded from the power
and governance structures available to other Zimbabwean communities. The
post-colonial state displayed either continued ambivalence or outright
hostility to these groups. The category of African/Zimbabwean in independent
Zimbabwe remained restricted to include only 'ancestral Zimbabweans' (groups
that were on Zimbabwean soil before the imposition of colonial rule). Subject
minorities were thus left in an anomalous position where they were, depending
on the context, regarded as either not indigenous at all or not the right kind of
indigenous.94
Local feelings about marginalisation also remained strong among other
minority groups such as the Shangani, Kalanga, Tonga and Venda, who were
located in the borderlands where there was little economic development and
less physical and social infrastructure. They complained of political and cultural
domination by both the Shona and Ndebele, enforced through such state
practices as national-language and educational policies which emphasised the
use of Ndebele and Shona at the expense of other national languages. In the
southern border town of Beitbridge, the issue of language was an important
mark, enforcing identity-group boundaries between the local Venda-speaking
people and the Shona, who were considered outsiders." The Shangani-speaking
communities in the south-east complained bitterly about the employment
of 'ICarangas' (derogatively termed uariyai, or foreigners) ahead of their sons
and daughters. At the same time, intensified competition for limited resources
periodically provoked ethnically motivated violence between Shangani-speaking
and Karanga-speaking groups living side by side.'
Paradoxically, while Zimbabwe was experiencing this internal turmoil, it
was still able to build a positive reputation for itself externally. The country
played a leading role in both the Southern African Development Co-ordination
Conference (SADCC) and the Frontline States; it chaired the Organisation of
African Unity (GA) and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM); and its President
received prestigious awards, including the Africa Prize for Leadership for the
Sustainable End of Hunger (1988) and the Jawaharlal Nehru Peace Award
"" Amanor-Wilks, Zimbabwe's Farm Workers; S. Moyo, B. Rutherford and D, Amanor-Wilks,
'land reform and changing social relations for farm workers in Zimbabwe', Review of African
Political Economy, 84, 2000, p. 189; Sachikonye, The Situation of Farm Workers, p. 18.
94
J. Muzondidya, Varnbartia: Ideological ambiguities in the politics of land and resource
ownership in Zimbabwe', Journal of Southern African History, 33(2), 2007, pp. 330-3.
95
R. Mathe, Making Ends Meet at the Margins: Grappling with Economic Crisis and
Belonging in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe (Dakar: Codesria. 2005), pp. 8-20.
Muzondidya and Ndlovu-Gatsheni, 'Ethnicity in post-colonial Zimbabwe', p. 29o.
From Buoyancy to Crisis, 1980-1997 189
the figure to be over 30,000. Unemployment rose from 32.2 per cent in 1990 to
44 per cent in 1993.m
At the same time, the deregulation of prices and the removal of subsidies
on basic consumer goods under ESAP resulted in severe hardships for workers,
the unemployed and the poor, all of whom battled to afford basic goods as
prices skyrocketed and workers' real wages declined. Under structural adjust-
ment, women's and children's suffering intensified, as poor households relied
increasingly on these groups' reproductive labour to sustain themselves. Gov-
ernment cutbacks in health and education subsidies made these services in-
accessible to the majority of the poor and unemployed, and the introduction of
user fees under ESAP further reduced school enrolments. The quality of health
services also deteriorated. According to a 1993 UNICEF study, health services
had fallen by 30 per cent, twice as many women were dying in childbirth as had
before iggo, and fewer people were visiting clinics and hospitals because they
could not afford it.'
The plight of the rural population also worsened during this period."'
There was a de-industrialisation of the agro-industrial sector, and rural poverty
intensified as a result of ESAP's adverse effects on the agricultural output of the
poor. It also exacerbated national and rural income inequalities. The combined
result of the reduction in government extension and agricultural input services,
the introduction of tight and more expensive credit, and the deterioration in
rural roads was a severe decline in both peasant agricultural productivity and
peasant earnings. Further, structural adjustment increased pressure on rural
land and natural resources as retrenched urban workers either sent their families
to their rural homes or went with them. 1 The increased pressure on land and
natural resources led to a flare-up of underlying social tensions that had not
been resolved in the first decade of independence, such as those concerning
racial inequalities and land ownership.
" Mlambo, The Ecorwmic Structural Adjustment Programme, p. 91.
See ibid., pp. 83-100, for a more detailed discussion of the effects of the structural adjust-
ment programme.
"'2 Studies showed that by 1995 at least a quarter of Zimbabwe's rural population was earning
less than the poverty datum figure of 734,004) per annum; nor were they growing sufficient
crops or keeping enough livestock to feed their families. See CSO, Demographic and Health
SurveY, 1995.
lu3 S. Moyo, The Land and Agrarian Question in Zimbabwe', p. 9; Moyo, Land Reform under
Structural Adjustment in Zimbabwe, pp. 58, go; Chiwonw, Masungo Maui.
1B6 darnels Muzcndriya
power base against ZA1s113(PF). Throughout the 198os, ZANU(Ndonga) thus
received its strongest support in the predominantly Ndau-speaking districts of
Chipinge.89
Post-colonial expressions of regionalism and political tribalism also remained
strong in Masvingo, where senior ZANU(PF) leader and government minister
Edison Zvobgo tried to mobilise Karanga identity to dilute what he and his sup-
porters, such as ZAIMPF) provincial chairman Dzikamai Mavhaire and former
airforce commander Josiah Tungamirai, viewed as a Zezuru monopoly over power
and resources. From independence, Karanga political elites and their supporters
constituted themselves as another centre of power that could not be ignored in
the politics of ethnic balancing.9" The roots of this go back to the days of the
liberation struggle, when contests for power were mainly between the Karanga
and the Manyike' After independence their ethnicity was derived mainly from
perceptions about marginalisation from both ZANU(111-) and state politics.
At the same time, minority groups, such as Coloureds and descendents of
immigrants from Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, also continued to feel
alienated, suffering discrimination by a post-colonial state which envisioned
the new nation in black and white racial binaries and essentialised categories of
indigeneity. Studies by Lloyd Sachikonye, Blair Rutherford and Dede Amanor-
Wilks, for instance, have all shown how Malawian, Zambian and Mozam-
bican immigrants and their descendants continued to be marginalised both
in redistributive programmes and in the dominant politics of belonging and
citizenship that unfolded in post-independence Zimbabwe.92 For years after
independence, many of those living and working on the farms and mines did
'19 Ndau tribalism in pest-independence Zimbabwe also evolved around the controversial
ousting of the Chipinge-lvrn and Ndau-speaking Ndabaningi Sithole from the leadership of
ZANU in 1975. See M. Sithole, Is Zimbabwe poised on a liberal path? The state and prospects
of the parties", Issue: A .Journal of Opinion, 21(1/2), 1993" pp. S7-8.
Mtrzondidya and Ndlovu-kliatsheni, 'Ethnicity in post-colonial Zimbabwe', pp. 291-2;
Tekere, A Lifetime of Struggle.
9
` M, Sithole, 'Ethnicity and factionalism in Zimbabwean nationalist politics, 1957-79',
Ethnic arid Racial Studies, 3(t), i980; M. Sithole, Zimbabwe: Struggles Within the Struggle
(Harare: Rujeko Publishers, 2nd edn., 1999).
92
L M. Sachikonye, The Situation of Farm Workers after band Reform in Zimbabwe: A
Report Prepared for the Farm Comm./unity l'rust of Zimbabwe, May 2003, available at <http://
vovw.oxfam tog kiwh at_we_d oi issues / I vel ihoods/ I and rig h ts/down load s zi t rtf >
retrieved 31 May 2o09; D. Amanor-Wilks, Zimhabwe's Farm Workers and the New Constitution,
2000, available at <http://wmtv.africaaction,orgirtableled0002.htrn>, retrieved 15 Feb. 20°4;
B. Rutherford, 'Belonging to the farm(er): Farm workers, farmers and the shifting politics of
citizenship', in Hamrnar et at. (eds.), Zimbabwe's Unfinished Business, pp. t91-216,
