With widespread hunger, political violence and unrest, the election on March 9-10 is highly contentious and creating great anxiety for Zimbabweans. Current president Robert Mugabe is fighting tooth and nail to secure his hold on the position he has maintained for 22 years. The looming election has proven highly controversial and has drawn extreme international attention and involvement.
Mugabe and the Zanu-PF ruling party has put in place a number of restrictive laws and policies in attempt to secure a win. Such laws include limiting freedom of the press, banning foreign journalists and making it illegal to criticize the president. In recent weeks Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change was even accused of plotting to kill the president, a move that Tsvangirai and the opposition party, deem as 'malicious propaganda.' Recent reports indicate that there are numerous torture camps set up throughout the country, with young Zanu-PF militia intimidating, threatening, torturing and killing MDC supporters.
What has led Zanu-PF to lose favour with the much of Zimbabwe and the international community, motivating these drastic measures? At least one integral reason is Mugabe's land reform policies throughout the years. As in many post-colonised countries, Zimbabwe suffers from severe inequality in land distribution. In 2000, 1 million blacks owned 16 million hectares of draught prone land, whereas 4,000 whites owned 11 million hectares of prime land.
The government's 'fast track' land resettlement policy intended to acquire 5 million hectares of land used for commercial farming and redistribute it to landless blacks. In April 2000 Mugabe pushed through a bill which allowed the government to seize white owned land and then declared Britain 'liable' for compensation. The UK responded that they would help only if they were ensured the land would go to the poor, claiming that the £44 million given since 1980 towards land reform had landed in the hands of government officials. The trend of land being given to members of government and civil servants seems to be continuing, with the BBC reporting in early January that 6 members of parliament, war veterans and journalists for the state-owned Herald newspaper have all been recipients of government seized land.
Another aspect of Mugabe's land reform policy has been to encourage farm invasions. For the past two years squatters have forcibly pushed white landowners off the land. Farm workers have also been caught in the middle of the conflict, being pressured by the war veterans to participate in the farm invasions, yet concerned for the security and well being of themselves and their families.
Land reform is a problem in Zimbabwe that desperately needs to be addressed. Seizing land without reparations and neglecting to give it to poor, landless blacks as well as encouraging the violent invasions of farms has not proven an effective means of solving the land issue. The continuing seizure of white owned land has placed the economy and people in peril. Critics say it has disrupted commercial farming and contributed to a chronic food shortage that had left 500,000 people in need of food aid.
Further troubling the hunger issue is a drought in Zimbabwe which has led to a severe decrease in the production of maize. While ordinarily having a surplus of maize, Zimbabwe has been forced to import the staple grain. With the loss of foreign currency and general economic instability, inflation in March has risen over 112%.
As of March 1, aid agencies claim that 1 in 20 Zimbabweans is hungry and 3 in 4 live at poverty level. Food is running out and prices are rising drastically. Massive financial assistance will be required to avoid mass starvation. Some estimate the country will need as much as $450 million. .
At a time when Zimbabwe is most desperate for international aid, nations are most reluctant to support Zimbabwe's economy. The EU and the US have imposed sanctions, the Commonwealth is considering suspending the country, and economic sanctions have not been ruled out if Mugabe is able to maintain a hold (fairly or unfairly) on the presidency. Even if MDC is able to win the election, the outlook is still grim. Some fear that the army will not accept a MDC victory and large-scale violence will ensue, hindering any hope for immediate change in land policies, much less averting mass starvation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/in_depth/africa/2000/zimbabwe/
http://www.irinnews.org/frontpage.asp?SelectRegion=Southern_Africa
http://www.igc.org/igc/gateway/index.html
http://www.intl-crisis-group.org/projects/project.cfm?subtypeid=14
http://www.mdczimbabwe.com/archivemat/other/opinion/opinion.htm?icg020111gtxt.htm