US embassy cable - 02HARARE981

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 000981 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
 
STATE FOR AF/S, AF/EX, HR/OE 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER 
TREASURY FOR ED BARBER AND C WILKINSON 
USDOC FOR 2037 DIEMOND 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
RIO FOR WEISSMAN 
PRETORIA PASS AG ATTACHE HELM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR, ECON, PGOV, PHUM, ZI, Land Reform 
SUBJECT: MADE'S STATEMENT RE:  LAND REFORM:  MORE OF THE 
SAME 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE PROTECT ACCORDINGLY 
NOT FOR INTERNET POSTING 
 
 1.  (SBU) Summary: In a press statement on April 12, 2002, 
Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made clarified the GOZ's 
stance on the conduct of its land resettlement program. 
While much of the statement merely repeated the ruling 
party's rhetoric, portions revealed some of the GOZ's more 
subtle intentions.  Made indicated that the GOZ will continue 
to target white farmers, regardless of nationality. 
Simultaneously, the statement carved out an exemption to 
maximum farm size for black indigenous farmers and those A2 
program farmers -- primarily ruling party cronies -- who have 
already seized prime properties.  Made's statement also 
indicated a desire to return to a command economy, with 
certain crops "emphasized," production targets established, 
and price structures dictated by the GOZ.  The statement 
warned white commercial farmers to halt what is labeled the 
destruction of infrastructure on acquired farms (by the 
removal of irrigation and other movable farm equipment), 
despite the terms of the law and the Abuja Agreement that 
allows such assets to be removed,  In closing, Made assured 
all that there will be "no going back" on the land reform 
program.  End summary. 
 
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Acquisition Notices 
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2. (SBU) Made's statement began with a review of the effect 
of receipt of both Section 5 (preliminary) notices and 
Section 8 (acquisition) notices.  Throughout, the statement 
also includes a clear subtext that warns and admonishes white 
farmers whose property is targeted.  In the segment regarding 
Section 5 notices, Made noted that after receiving such a 
notice, the landowner shall not: subdivide the property, make 
any further permanent improvements, dispose of the property, 
damage the property, or carry out any other activities which 
sabotage the smooth implementation of the land reform 
program.  In the segment regarding Section 8 notices, Made 
stated that "White commercial farmers must stand warned that 
government will not tolerate interference of the operations 
of the newly settled farmer."  These statements lay the 
groundwork for Made's subsequent quantum leap whereby 
irrigation equipment, tractors, and even farm vehicles are 
interpreted as belonging to the land, and whose removal 
therefore constitutes both sabotage against the land reform 
program and interference with the operations of newly settled 
farmers. 
 
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Maximum Farm Size 
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3. (SBU) The statement also addressed the maximum farm size 
issue.  Made's statement indicated that all farms, even those 
not gazetted for compulsory acquisition, would be sub-divided 
to comply with the maximum farm size limits.  There are a few 
exempt categories, most of which are political.  In addition 
to exempting state lands, church/mission lands, and lands 
belonging to educational institutions, the maximum size 
initiative will exempt those properties owned by black 
indigenous farmers and properties where A1/A2 allocations 
have already taken place.  Anecdotal reports from commercial 
farmers, as well as newspaper reports, indicate that many of 
the A2 "settlers" are actually Zanu-PF officials or military 
officers grabbing large chunks of prime land for their 
personal benefit. 
 
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Claims of Sabotage by Commercial Farmers 
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4. (SBU) Made claimed that he had received reports of 
commercial farmers deliberately destroying infrastructure in 
order to frustrate government efforts to grow a winter crop. 
In addition to equating removal of irrigation equipment with 
sabotage, Made made a spurious claim that commercial farmers 
have sprayed sugarcane plantations with harmful chemicals and 
deliberately infected cattle with diseases.  What facts these 
claims are based on were left unrevealed.  Other parts of the 
statement emphasize that anything on a farm, movable, 
immovable, perishable or not, must stay on the property when 
the commercial farmer is evicted.  Made stated that no 
departing farmer would be granted an export permit to remove 
"farm equipment," a term which he now uses interchangeably 
with "infrastructure". 
 
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Ministry Civil Servants 
----------------------- 
5. (SBU) In the statement Made also claimed that he was aware 
that some lower-level government personnel were acting in 
concert with commercial farmers to derail and delay the land 
reform program.  His message was that heads will roll if such 
practices continue.  Commercial farmers tell us that they 
wish such were the case, but no one, not even the local 
police they have known for years, is willing to stand up for 
rights or principles or in the path of the illegal and still 
violent juggernaut. 
 
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Statement Conclusion 
-------------------- 
6. (SBU) Made concluded that the Land Reform and Agrarian 
Reform program is well crafted, as it is based upon studies 
that show Zimbabwe has land that is under-utilized and 
virgin.  Made righteously pronounced that the land 
re-distribution program would "ensure that agricultural 
production is never again in the hands of a few who 
under-utilise or hold to ransom the means of food security, 
employment creation, and economic growth," a line unashamedly 
cribbed from the President's speech book.  This oratory 
contrasts starkly with the reality of the exercise, as 
productive land is seized, looted, divided, and returned to 
subsistence practices that will result in environmental 
degradation and massive food shortfalls.  The country's 
agricultural sector has already devolved from a 
self-sustaining profitable enterprise, which earned much of 
Zimbabwe's forex, to a wounded and crippled activity with 
tens of thousands of displaced workers and a reduced ability 
to feed the population. 
 
SULLIVAN