US embassy cable - 02HARARE2446

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 002446 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JFRAZER 
LONDON FOR CGURNEY 
NAIROBI FOR PFLAUMER 
PARIS FOR NEARY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR, PHUM, PGOV, ZI 
SUBJECT: NEW GOZ DIRECTIVE ON LAND ACQUISITION 
 
 
1. (SBU)  Summary.  During a recent meeting with Commercial 
Farmers' Union (CFU) personnel, laboff received a copy of a 
GOZ directive targeted at "cleaning up" the chaotic land 
redistribution exercise.  This policy statement is directed 
to the ad-hoc decisions and dealmaking which have 
characterized the directionless land redistribution exercise, 
whereby individual governors and District Administrators have 
entered into widely varying agreements with commercial 
farmers who are desperate to keep some portion of their 
assets.  It also contains an oblique reference to allegations 
that some ZANU-PF beneficiaries have claimed several farms 
apiece.  Further, it clearly contradicts GOZ claims that 
white commercial farmers would be allowed to keep part of 
their land, that no white commercial farmer had been forcibly 
evicted from his land, and that farms which are the only 
property of commercial farmers would be exempt from 
expropriation.  In this sense, the sentiment embodied in the 
statement "One man, one farm" has morphed from a protective 
policy for white commercial farmers into a warning statement 
to indigenous Zimbabwean speculators.  Copy of the GOZ policy 
statement follows.  End summary. 
 
2. (SBU)  Begin text: 
 
"Attention: - 
 
All Provincial Governors 
 
The Secretary of Local Government, Public Works and National 
Housing 
 
The Secretary of Rural Resources and Water Development 
 
The Secretary of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affair 
 
All Provincial Administrators 
 
All Provincial Chief Land Officers 
 
All District Administrators 
 
All District Land Officers 
 
LAND REFORM PROGRAMME POLICY PRONOUNCEMENTS 
 
The Fast Track Land Resettlement exercise has been a mammoth 
task which has had many challenges.  Cabinet, at its meetings 
of 17th September 2002 and 15th October 2002, decided that 
the 11 million hectares acquired compulsorily during the Fast 
Track Resettlement Programme and the 3.6 million acquired 
under the normal resettlement programme since 1980 stand as 
acquired and now constitute STATELAND and cannot revert back 
to their original status for any reason.  All officers 
dealing with the Land Reform Programme should take note of 
this decision. 
 
District and Provincial officers have given themselves 
excessive powers to make concessions with farmers without 
referring such decisions to the Minister of Lands, 
Agriculture and Rural Resettlement who is vested with such 
Land Authority powers.  This must stop forthwith. 
 
Cabinet has also resolved that:- 
 
1.  resettled farmers shall not be evicted from the 11 
million hectares they have settled on; 
 
2.  white farmers affected by the above-cited position shall 
be accommodated elsewhere where they may be allocated 
portions of land which are up to the relevant maximum farm 
size and the allocation of the relevant maximum farm size 
shall NOT be deemed as a right to any white farmer; 
 
3.  there shall be no ownership of rural agricultural land by 
companies and that where such transfers have occurred in the 
recent past, such transfers shall be rescinded by Government; 
 
4.  rural agricultural farms shall not be regarded as assets 
of a company but must stand on their own and shall be 
registered in an individual's name; 
 
5.  rural land under the A2 Model shall be leased; 
 
6.  all A2 leases shall be in the name of individuals and 
shall not be in the name of companies; 
 
7.  A2 leases shall contain a condition regarding 
Government's right to recourse in respect of the land in 
question or a portion thereof; 
 
8.  Government suspends until further notice the issuing of 
Certificates of No Present Interest in respect of all rural 
agricultural land; 
 
9.  the subdivision of farms shall be undertaken without any 
hindrance to Land Officers or influence from the white farmer 
who may be allocated any of the resultant subdivisions; 
 
10.  white farmers shall not be grouped into an enclave as 
and when they are resettled; 
 
11.  the planning, demarcation and resettlement of farms with 
orchards, horticultural and agro-industries shall be done 
with speed and requisite care; 
 
12.  the policy of one person/house hold one plot or farm 
still holds in the interest of equity, justice and fair play 
and shall be enforced; 
 
13.  future acquisitions and gazetting of rural agricultural 
land for resettlement shall follow the already laid down 
criteria and procedures which criteria and procedures shall 
be respected; and 
 
14.  similarly, any material policy changes in respect of the 
land acquisition process shall be channeled through the laid 
down procedures 
 
(no signature) 
N. Masoka 
SECRETARY 
 
SIPDIS 
MINISTRY OF LANDS, AGRICULTURE AND RURAL RESETTLEMENT" 
 
End text. 
 
3. (SBU) Comment.  The adjective "chaotic" is frequently used 
to describe the resettlement program in Zimbabwe because 
local officials are implementing redistribution patterns of 
their own design.  While the governors of some regions -- 
such as Midlands -- are attempting to craft a solution which 
is sustainable, other regions have seen "solutions" which 
resemble warlord politics, with white commercial farmers 
bribing the highest official they can find in a desperate 
attempt to salvage some of their property, or rival political 
leaders promoting land invasions while other resist. 
Ironically, such commercial farmers are still subject to 
dispossession, with settlers and war veterans forcing 
evictions whereby other arrangements, including High Court 
judgments in the farmers' favor, have been flagrantly 
ignored.  CFU contacts also report that the Ministry has 
directed that any recent sales of commercial farms from white 
farmers to indigenous Zimbabwean farmers -- another attempt 
by white commercial farmers to salvage part of their life's 
work -- are null and void, with the land in question 
remaining vulnerable to expropriation.  This latest directive 
appears to be an attempt on the part of the Ministry of 
Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement to re-exert some 
level of central control over a wildly disorganized process. 
Whether or not the Ministry is successful, commercial farmers 
do not stand to gain any relief from this initiative.  As 
evidenced by the language in this policy pronouncement, the 
GOZ remains firmly committed to the destruction of white 
commercial farmers and their concomitant political voice. 
End comment. 
 
SULLIVAN