LAND REFORM IN ZIMBABWE: ZANU-PF'S RED HEERING

Abstract

ABSTRACT Land remains a hotly contested issue within Zimbabwean society 18 years after independence. The question is why? Governments do have an important role to play in land reform and hence in agriculture restructuring. The role is often less dramatic than a rescue mission, and yet more difficult, because it requires a clear definition of objectives and criteria to be followed. Like most liberation movements ZANU-PF gave prominence to changing rural land ownership to improve access to land by the landless. In government, however, ZANU-PF has failed to deliver on the land issue. As elsewhere, when the issue is land reform, powerful social groups within ZANU-PF have been able to derail public intentions for private gains. We argue in this paper that the failure of ZANU-PF on land reform has very little to do with the perceived constraints of the Lancaster House type of Constitution. In fact, we argue that ZANU-PF never had a clear concept of land reform or any desire to move beyond non-committal politica...