US embassy cable - 04HARARE1329

UNCLAS HARARE 001329 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/S 
USDOC FOR AMANDA HILLIGAS 
TREASURY FOR OREN WYCHE-SHAW 
PASS USTR FLORIZELLE LISER 
STATE PASS USAID FOR MARJORIE COPSON 
 
E. O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV, EAID, BTIO, EINV, EAGR, ECON, PGOV, ZI, Land Reform 
SUBJECT: THE UNBEARABLE STRANGENESS OF LAND REFORM 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: Just when you thought the debate over 
land reform could get no stranger it does. Amid the 
clamor about ZANU-PF and GOZ bigwigs receiving more than 
one farm, inter-factional fighting within Zanu-PF has 
resulted in the GOZ-controlled Herald newspaper 
inadvertently praising former white commercial farmers 
and exposing the faults with land reform. End Summary. 
 
NKOMO AND MOYO SPAR PUBLICLY 
2. (SBU) Land Minister, and ZANU-PF Secretary General, 
John Nkomo has renewed his effort to locate and take away 
properties from Zanu-PF and GOZ heavyweights who have 
violated the stated one-family one-farm standard for fast 
track land reform. A list of 329 violators has become 
public and Nkomo has sent letters to top officials 
requesting that they divest extra farm holdings. Included 
on this list is Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, the 
force behind the GOZ's invidious state media. 
3. (U) In response, The Herald of August 1, 2004 has, as 
its lead article, the story of an underutilized Lynton 
Farm owned by the Land Ministry Permanent Secretary Simon 
Pazvakambwa. According to the article, "Irrigation 
equipment worth millions of dollars and other farming 
implements are lying idle . . . while workers on the plot 
allege that they have not been paid since May". 
 
4. (U) The article states that tobacco barns and pigsties 
lay unused and only one maize field and one groundnut 
field were planted last year. The workers stopped work on 
July 3 due to lack of payment of their "meager salary of 
Z$52000 each" (less than US$10) a month. The reporter 
then recounts pregnant women's stories of their reliance 
upon well-wishers for survival. Pazvakambwa promised to 
plant wheat this season but has not done so. 
 
5. (SBU) In classic expose style, the article closes with 
an interview with Pazvakambwa. He demands to know the 
sources for the story and refuses to comment further. The 
story claims, however, that Pazvakambwa let slip that he 
will pay the workers immediately. 
 
HERALD REMINISCES ABOUT WHITE FARMERS 
6. (U) The truly surreal quality of land reform, however, 
comes out in the article's portrayal of the white farmer 
who owned Lynton Farm. According to one of the workers at 
the farm, "`around this time Mr. Malzer would have put 
tobacco and paprika seed and would be planting early 
maize for December.'" The reporter describes how Malzer 
"used to grow paprika, maize, tobacco and ran a thriving 
cattle ranch and piggery". 
 
COMMENT 
7. (SBU) Zimbabwe's surreal environment has the GOZ- 
controlled Herald praising the former white farmer's 
utilization of Lynton Farm, as compared to its current 
underutilization by a GOZ bigwig, when it was GOZ that 
removed the white commercial farmer in the first place. 
Yet in the heat of Zanu-PF primaries leading up to next 
year's parliamentary elections, hardliners like Moyo care 
more about undermining moderates like Nkomo than 
attacking whites. It is a strange twist in political 
discourse here. 
 
8. (SBU) Nkomo and the Land Ministry are not likely to 
simply take the criticism. The Herald's expose of Lynton 
Farm may lead to further articles in the independent and 
semi-independent press about the state of affairs on 
other farms owned by party and GOZ bigwigs. In the 
process of inter-factional fighting, these very public 
disagreements may discredit the entire land reform 
process, providing an entertaining spectacle as Zanu-PF 
discredits its own touted policy. 
 
Sullivan