COMMENT - This is what happens when there are no limits on what politicians can 'sell' from under the feed of the people of the country under neoliberalism/globalisation.
(GUARDIAN UK) Maasai herders driven off land to make way for luxury safaris, report says
Tanzanian government accused of putting indigenous people at risk in order to grant foreign tourists access to Serengeti wildlife
Jonathan Watts Global environment correspondent
Thu 10 May 2018 11.00 BST Last modified on Thu 10 May 2018 11.02 BST
The Tanzanian government is putting foreign safari companies ahead of Maasai herding communities as environmental tensions grow on the fringes of the Serengeti national park, according to a new investigation.
Hundreds of homes have been burned and tens of thousands of people driven from ancestral land in Loliondo in the Ngorongoro district in recent years to benefit high-end tourists and a Middle Eastern royal family, says the report by the California-based thinktank the Oakland Institute.
Although carried out in the name of conservation, these measures enable wealthy foreigners to watch or hunt lions, zebra, wildebeest, giraffes and other wildlife, while the authorities exclude local people and their cattle from watering holes and arable land, the institute says.
The report, released on Thursday highlights the famine and fear caused by biodiversity loss, climate change, inequality and discrimination towards indigenous groups.
Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever uses previously unpublished correspondence, official documents, court testimonies and first-person testimony to examine the impact of two firms: Thomson Safaris based in the United States, and Otterlo Business Corporation based in the United Arab Emirates.
It says Thomson’s sister company, Tanzania Conservation Limited, is in a court battle with three Maasai villages over the ownership of 12,617 acres (5,106 hectares) of land in Loliondo which the company uses for safaris.
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One Maasai quoted in the report said Thomson had built a camp in the middle of their village, blocking access. “Imagine, a stranger comes and constructs a big building in the centre of your home,” reads the testimony. “Our livestock cannot go to the waterhole – there is no other route for the villagers or their livestock.”
The report says villagers have been driven off, assaulted or arrested by local police, park rangers or security guards.
The restricted access to land has made the Maasai more vulnerable to famine during drought years, the report says, noting appeals that locals have made for the government to change policies because of growing numbers of malnourished children.
A Maasai villager contacted by the Guardian said access remained blocked and that uniformed agents had beaten, threatened or tied-up and driven off pastoralists, as recently as December.
Thomson strongly denies these accusations. It says Tanzania Conservation Limited employs 100% Maasai staff, allows cattle on the property to access seasonal water, and works with local communities and the government to conserve the savannah, improve access to water and formulate a sustainable grazing policy.
The company blames past conflicts on NGO activists who they say stirred up villagers and led to staff being assaulted by young warriors armed with clubs, spears, knives and poison arrows.
“These interventions have been played out to attract attention, provide stories, and to disrupt the working relationship between company and communities on the ground,” Rick Thomson, a director of Tanzania Conservation, wrote in an email to the Guardian. “In these events the endangered staff have a protocol of disengaging any way they can to avoid escalation, and reporting to the authorities any situation where any people and property, are physically threatened. These situations have been rare and no such events have occurred for the last four years.”
He said the company was not connected to government evictions of illegal residents in the national park, which is reserved for wildlife.
The report also claims Maasai have been driven off land as a result of government ties with Otterlo Business Corporation, which organises hunting trips for the royal family of the United Arab Emirates and their guests who fly into a custom-built landing strip in Loliondo.
Since Otterlo was first granted 400,000 hectares of land for hunting, the government has mounted successive eviction operations.
The company has warned the area needs greater ecological protection because herds are increasing while water sources are drying up due to climate change.
Despite past government promises that the Maasai would never be evicted from their land, the report notes Serengeti national park rangers burned 114 bomas (traditional homes) in 2015 and another 185 in August of last year. Along with other demolitions, local media report more than 20,000 Maasai were left homeless.
Maasai protests, an international outcry and domestic allegations of corruption have forced a reconsideration of this policy. In November 2017, the tourism minister revoked the hunting licence of Otterlo, suspended the state director of wildlife, and ordered investigations into the links between foreign firms and former officials.
But the authorities appear divided. Locals told the Guardian this week that Otterlo continues to operate safari tours in Loliondo to the detriment of villagers.
A tourist takes pictures of Maasai villagers.
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A tourist takes pictures of Maasai villagers. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Lawyers representing the Maasai communities in a court claim over the land said the policies of the government were tilted towards foreign tour companies.
“The evictions are not justified because more and more land is being taken away from the villages without due process or compensation even though they have legal titles,” said lawyer Rashid S Rashid. “The policies of the government are based mainly on the arguments advanced by Thomson and Otterlo because they have more political influence than the villagers.”
The report’s authors say the problem dates back to the era of British rule. From then onwards, Maasai have been steadily dispossessed of land on the Serengeti. They urge the government to take urgent action to alleviate the risk of famine, establish a new model of land titling and an independent inquiry into disputes over ownership.
“Without access to grazing lands and watering holes, and without the ability to grow food for their communities, the Maasai are at risk of a new 21st-century period of emutai (eradication),” said Anuradha Mittal, the director of the Oakland Institute. “But it does not have to be this way. Unlike the emutai of the 19th century, the hardships and abuses currently faced by the Maasai can be halted.”
Labels: GLOBALISATION, LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS, NEOLIBERALISM, NGORONGORO
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COMMENT - This is the new trend in land theft, facilitated by the IMF, which has never seen a corporate takeover that it didn't support. And called 'development'. If you want to know more about the IMF's land title reform, vs real land redistribution, check out Ambreena Manji's
The Politics Of Land Reform In Africa.
(LUSAKATIMES) Western corporations carve up Africa -the New Scramble for Africa
November 22, 2015
Huge tracts of land in African countries with access to the sea and high economic growth are being targeted by corporations such as Monsanto and Unilever with help from the British and American governments –including millions of dollars that are intended for helping the poor, says a report published today by UK campaigning group World Development Movement.
The document, titled
Carving up a continent: How the UK government is facilitating the corporate takeover of African food systems, explains that a G8 initiative called the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition is using money intended for poverty reduction to instead ease access to key African locations for some of the world’s biggest companies, which already control much of the global food market.
Doublespeak and the new “scramble for Africa”
What’s more, the New Alliance agreements signed with ten key African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania) are conditional, and many of them require the country in question to bring legislation – for example, revising seed laws to force small farmers to buy seeds and fertilisers from the corporates rather than seed sharing, which has been practised for generations and ensures biodiversity.
Under the new paradigm, multinationals gain access to fertile land and agricultural corridors on the pretext of tackling food poverty and helping Africa’s starving and needy. In reality this is doublespeak. If the New Alliance continues unchecked, it’s likely that problems are stored up for the future, as small scale and family farmers are forced off their land to make way for industrial scale crop production. WDM also identifies issues such as insecure and poorly paid jobs and a focus on producing for export markets rather than to feed local populations.
The report’s introduction, by WDM director Nick Dearden, says: “This is an old story given new impetus. More than a century ago the ‘scramble for Africa’ was instituted under the pretence of civilising the continent. Barbaric crimes were committed and the continent systematically de-developed because it profited Europe. Since that time, Africa’s problem has never been a lack of integration into the international economy – the problem is how it is integrated and in whose interests.”
Using money intended for poverty reduction to ease access to key African locations
Oblivious citizens
This isn’t the first time the New Alliance has come under fire – the Guardian newspaper published a critical piece last year. But the general populations of the countries whose taxpayers are supporting this power grab are woefully unaware that it is even happening, and so too are the citizens in whose countries these events are unfolding. This despite the fact that a whopping £600 million of UK aid money, for example, via the Department for International Development (DFID), is being channelled into this between 2012 and 2016.
Ironically this comes at a time when alternatives to the industrialisation of agriculture are being explored worldwide, and as the realities of climate change are being better understood. Africa is a place where new models of permaculture could meet old models of sustainable farming and cooperation to leapfrog the West – finding sustainable and locally owned solutions to nutritious food production.
The ‘scramble for Africa’ was instituted under the pretence of civilising the continent
The wheels are already turning
But this hangs in the balance. Many New Alliance partnership countries, such as Malawi, have already instituted many of the changes demanded as part of their agreement, and it has become much easier for foreign corporations to buy great tracts of land. Ghana recently saw the Plant Breeders’ Bill being pushed through its Parliament by politicians that Food Sovereignty Ghana implied might be on the take.
The corporations involved in the New Alliance are huge – Monsanto, Unilever, Syngenta, DuPont, Cargill, Diageo, SABMiller, Coca Cola, Yara. The last company – Yara – may not be a name you recognise, but is the largest global manufacturer of fertiliser. According to the WDM report, these agrochemicals “already cause serious levels of food poisoning in sub-Saharan Africa, with the UN estimating that health problems linked to pesticides could cost the region $90 billon between 2005 and 2020. Fertilisers also damage soil, leading farmers to rely on them even more in order to maintain production, which increases their risk of getting into debt.”
“The tragic consequences of small-scale farmers’ reliance on fertilisers in India have been much reported. An estimated 250,000 farmers committed suicide between 1995 and 2010 after getting into debt through buying agrochemicals.”
Under the guise of charity
Remember that old development chestnut “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Show him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”? The New Alliance seems to be about snapping his fishing rod in half, throwing it into the sea and telling him that you now own the sea and he must buy his fish from you, at wildly fluctuating prices. And it’s under the guise of charity.
The ‘scramble for Africa’ was instituted under the pretence of civilising the continent
Yet look at the personnel. Unilever’s external affairs director was previously at DFID and DFID’s director of policy used to work for Unilever. Meanwhile, for all the talk of wanting to solve African hunger, the chosen countries are almost all coastal, and tend to have high economic growth. Of the countries in Africa that have the worst hunger index scores, only one – Ethiopia – is a New Alliance country.
While all the players talk about poverty reduction and food security, the reality is that the path that will have the most positive effect for African farmers and populations long term is food sovereignty. That means ownership and control of land and non-reliance on imported seeds and foods, as well as being able to adjust crops to need. It might be tempting to apply the machine logic of industrialisation to agriculture and scale it up, on the basis that more food grown equals more people fed. But in reality the problem of hunger is not one to do with volume of food produced worldwide – rather it’s to do with existing unjust systems of food production and distribution. These are the very systems that the New Alliance is desperate to bring to Africa.
Other players are the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, set up by the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Gates Foundation; the New Vision for Agriculture, launched by the World Economic Forum and led by 33 multinationals from Monsanto to Walmart; and Grow Africa, a collaboration between the World Economic Forum and the African Union.
Of course, the New Alliance does have its defenders. Namely, international pop gimp Bono’s ONE Foundation, which hit the headlines a few years ago for giving a whopping 1% of its funds to actual charity…
In its 2013 report Growing Africa: Unlocking the potential of agribusiness the World Bank said: “Africa represents the ‘last frontier’ in global food and agricultural markets.” Once Africa’s greatest commodity to line the pockets of its pillagers was its human capital. Now they’re coming for the land, and the sustenance it offers. Don’t wait until it’s too late.
By Grace Kiwanga
Source: This is Africa
Labels: DFID, LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS, MONSANTO, NEOCOLONIALISM
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Land reform gets another thumbs-up, but . . .
Sunday, 05 January 2014 00:00
Harmony Agere In-Depth Reporter
The land reform programme got yet another thumbs-up from an unlikely source following the publication of a report that stated that the agrarian reforms have transformed the lives of Zimbabwe’s rural populace.
The report, which was published at the end of last year by the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Sussex, indicates that the Zimbabwean economy is on the recovery that has been aided by the growth of rural businesses as a result of the land reform programme.
However, there are reports that the gains recorded so far could be swept away as some newly resettled farmers are alleging that they are being forced to leave their farms to pave way for other farmers, in cases that stink of corruption.
The study by Ian Scoones, a professor at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, further suggests that the programme has significantly improved the agricultural sector.
According to Scoones, production initially collapsed in the early stages of the programme due to the challenges associated with the general state of the economy.
He, however, stated that the agricultural sector has been stable since 2009. The report attributed the stabilisation to the increase in tobacco and cotton production.
The report states that “of around 7 million hectares of land redistributed via the land reform programme, 49,9 percent of the people who benefited were rural peasants, 18.3% were unemployed or in low-paid jobs in regional towns, growth points and mines, 16,5 percent were civil servants, and 6,7 percent were of the Zimbabwean working class.”
Contrary to the claims by critics of the land reform programme who are alleging that only Government bureaucrats were benefiting, the report indicates that only 4,8 percent of the land went to business people, and 3,7 percent went to security services.
Since the introduction of the land reform programme, farming activities have been on the increase in Zimbabwe with tobacco production leading the way.
A total of 153 million kilogrammes of tobacco were auctioned in the past season.
The successful land reform programme has managed to address a number of colonial injustices. To date, over 150 000 A1 and over 20 000 A2 farmers have benefited from the land redistribution exercise.
The Government in June 1998 published the policy framework on the land reform and resettlement programme Phase II.
The programme envisaged the compulsory purchase over five years of 50 000 square kilometres from the 112 000 square kilometres owned by white commercial farmers, public corporations, churches, non-governmental organisations and multi-national companies.
Broken down, the 50 000 square kilometres meant that every year between 1998 and 2003, the Government intended to acquire 10 000 square kilometres for redistribution.
By the beginning of the new millennium, Government moved swiftly to address the colonial ill by introducing an Act which removed the willing-buyer-willing-seller policy and replaced it with an Act which provided for compulsory acquisition of land by the Government for redistribution.
As a result of the Act, thousands of disenfranchised blacks who had been driven out of the fertile lands into “reserves” were allocated arable land.
However, despite recording many positives, the programme has been tainted by some greedy and corrupt elements who are slowing down the gains of the land reform programme.
There have been reports of corrupt land officials who are receiving bribes to corruptly allocate land in areas that have already been allocated to other farmers, causing strife and disunity in the process.
The illegal land allocations are alleged to have worsened after the 2013 harmonised elections.
Mrs Maurine Chindunda of Riversdale Farm in Chegutu said corruption is rife in her area.
“I am afraid that I might lose my farm anytime.
“I was allocated this farm 10 years ago, but last week, I was approached by some land officials who told me that I was supposed to move out and pave way for another farmer. I am, however, resisting that directive,” Mrs Chindunda said.
Another affected farmer, Jericho Mubai of Hurungwe, said he was forced to co-exist with another farmer.
In an interview, the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Cde Douglas Mombeshora, said his office had received numerous complaints about illegal land allocations and was looking into the matter. He said district administrators are not mandated to allocate land and warned those that are doing so that they will face the full wrath of the law.
“We have received reports about illegal land allocations and, as a ministry, we are going to put an end to that practice,” Minister Mombeshora said.
Senior Government officials have also castigated corrupt land dealings, saying such acts reverse the gains of the land reform programme.
Speaking at the recently held Zanu-PF Harare Provincial conference, Cde Amos Midzi, the chairman of the province, warned party members to desist from illegal land allocations.
“I would like to warn those that are illegally evicting and allocating land to stop doing so. As Government, we have proper structures that were established for those specific purposes,” he said.
Labels: IAN SCOONES, LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) State, banks meet over 99-year leases
Sunday, 19 January 2014 00:00
Itai Mazire
The Government has begun refining the 99-year lease agreements issued to beneficiaries of the land reform programme to enable the farmers to access funding from financial institutions.
Under the present set-up, the beneficiaries cannot secure bank loans for production as the documents cannot be used as collateral.
It is understood the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement is already working on a new framework which will soon be presented to Cabinet for scrutiny. Ministry officials are also expected to meet Bankers’ Association of Zimbabwe (BAZ) representatives this week to discuss the proposals.
In an interview last week, the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora, said authorities want to ensure farmers secure loans before the next winter and summer cropping seasons.
“We noted in the media that while responding to criticism from legislators during a post-budget seminar last week, the BAZ president, Mr George Guvamatanga, said money held by banks belonged to depositors and it would not be prudent for them to lend it to farmers based on the 99-year lease.
“As a ministry, we immediately wrote to Mr Guvamatanga on Wednesday so that we could meet and craft an agreeable document that would see banks give farmers loans since agriculture is a key driver of the economy.
“After noting that there was no response from BAZ since then, we have since communicated with them through the ministry’s permanent secretary that we meet this week. “The whole process involves sitting with them and coming up with a security-based document that will see the farmer go to the bank and secure funding for his or her farming activities.”
Dr Mombeshora said there was need for banks and farmers to collaborate as agriculture underpins the country’s economy.
“It is not about us, as Government, giving farmers title deeds so that they secure loans from financial institutions. The matter is about us, as a ministry and BAZ, meeting to come up with a document that will see farmers get funding.
“We understand their position that some farmers will default on loan repayment, but there is now need for them (banks) to understand that Zimbabwe is an agro-based economy that also needs support from financial institutions.
“The ministry is working on the modalities for a security-based lease document that will give banks trust and at the same time see farmers benefiting. BAZ has since indicated that they are willing to accept proposals with regards to farmers securing loans.
“It is a matter of giving banks security, and this security will be in the lease agreements. Government will not give farmers title deeds since this was rejected during the constitutional referendum. We need to deal with this stalemate between farmers and banks.”
Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union second vice-resident Mr Berean Mukwende said the initiative would help address the farmers’ plight. He said Government should ensure refining the lease agreements was mutually beneficial.
“Communal farmers form the majority which is really suffering because they are not accessing any loans from banks. There is need for banks to trust farmers. The farmers should also be able to pay back loans on time. “We are depositors in these banks, hence there is need for them to allow us to secure loans like any other individual in Zimbabwe.”
Last week, legislators attending a post-budget seminar in Harare raised concern over farmers’ failure to secure bank funding. They argued that the situation continued to inhibit production.
Responding to the complaints, Mr Guvamatanga said BAZ was open to discuss the matter with stakeholders with a view to finding solutions.
“At the end of the day, banks will take their money where they are likely to be paid back, where there are proper structures. Unfortunately, the proper structures at the moment are only in tobacco,” he said.
Labels: 2008 BUDGET, LAND RIGHTS
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(PROGRESS, BBC) Quilombos, Ex-Slave Communities, Fight Brazilian Navy for Land
January 10, 2014 Posted by Staff under Land Disputes No Comments
This 2014 excerpt of the BBC, Jan 7, is by Julia Carneiro.
Rio dos Macacos, home to 67 families, is one of Brazil’s quilombos – communities started by former slaves who went to live in hiding, surviving as best as they could by working the land, before forced labour was prohibited in Brazil in 1888.
According to Fundacao Palmares, a government-funded cultural organisation, there are more than 2,400 quilombos across the country.
Many still keep alive the traditions of their ancestors, such as African dance forms and forms of worship.
But even after slavery was abolished, elders say their ancestors had few rights. For a long time, they continued to work the sugarcane fields not for pay, but in return for food and housing.
It was only after the local farms went into decline, that the quilombolas – as quilombo residents are known – were allowed to harvest some of the fields and keep the proceeds for themselves.
But no land was ever formally given to them – an omission which is at the root of at their current problems.
Brazil’s constitution – signed in 1988, 100 years after slavery was abolished – ruled that quilombolas were entitled to the land they had historically occupied.
A navy built a naval base in the area in the 1950, and as the base grew, the area where quilombolas lived shrank. Today, the Aaratu Naval Base is the second largest in the country. One of the oldest residents, Maria de Souza Oliveira, 86, remembers how 70 families were moved to make way for a village built for the families of navy personnel in the 1970s. Nowadays, some 450 families live in the navy village, just across the Macacos river from the quilombo.
Community leader Rosimeire dos Santos Silva says the community has had its crops pulled out. “They harass our children on their way to school. And if we try to work the soil, we’re beaten up.”
See source
Ed. Notes: Ironic, isn’t it, that the institution that’s supposed to defend the people instead attacks them when it wants what the people have. And nobody is going to attack Brazil. What do they want with an expanding military anyway? They could abolish it, as Costa Rica did, as any nation could. Just use geonomics to settle and disputes both within and beyond national borders.
Labels: BRAZIL, LAND RIGHTS
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Bikita land dispute: Headman battles for life
January 21, 2014
George Maponga in Masvingo
One of two village heads locked in a boundary dispute in Mukanganwi communal lands is reportedly battling for his life at Silveira Mission Hospital after he was severely assaulted by a group of women angered by the ongoing demolition of homes belonging to Rozvi clan members in Bikita.
Mr Richard Mukari (age not given), who is the Vanhukwavo village head, is said to have sustained severe injuries yesterday morning when he was allegedly pummelled with logs and sticks by a group of women.
The women oppose the eviction of 26 Masunda families from their ancestral land. The Zimbabwe Chiefs’ Council called on the feuding village heads to promote peaceful co-existence between their different clans.
Police yesterday descended on the restive area and arrested several people in connection with the alleged assault of Mr Mukari and related violence.
Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Chief Inspector Peter Zhanero said; “We have just received information that there are people who were beaten in Bikita in connection with a boundary dispute between two clans. We do not have information on how many people were injured and the extent of the injuries.
“We have made some arrests but we cannot give the exact number of those arrested because screening of the suspects is still ongoing. We will only give full details once we get all the facts on the table.”
Sources said women from Furanyi village, accompanied by youths, confronted Mr Mukari and demanded to know why he was evicting Masunda family members from the land of their fathers.
The situation degenerated into violence with the women and youths using logs, sticks and other weapons to beat him resulting in him sustaining severe body injuries.
ZCC president Chief Fortune Charumbira said clannish and tribal divisions had no place in communities.
“While the matter is now before the courts, we feel there was no need to rush to the courts for a solution over a mere boundary dispute between two village heads. There should have been an attempt to exhaust the arbitration by our traditional leadership,” he said.
Mr Mukari,a member of the dominant Duma clan in Bikita, won a High Court order to the families last year. Five homes have already been razed to the ground.
Things took a nasty turn last week when villagers in Masunda violently blocked the Deputy Sheriff and police from carrying out further evictions.
Labels: LAND RIGHTS, RICHARD MUKARI
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(STICKY) (GLOBALRESEARCH) Exporting Apartheid to Sub-Saharan Africa. The Legacy of Nelson Mandela
By Prof Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research, December 13, 2013
Region: sub-Saharan Africa
COMMENT - This goes to my contention that if you allow the perpetrators of economic crimes to keep their cash, they will re-invent the old criminal system under a different name. Isn't it ironic that the corporate friendly IMF programs mesh so well with corporate friendly Apartheid?
This article was first published in French in the Monde diplomatique in April 1997. It was subsequently published in the African Journal of Political Economy and in the author’s book: The Globalization of Poverty and the New World Order.
The policy of land expropriation in Mozambique leading to the establishment of White Afrikaner farms using indentured Mozambican farm workers had the support of the ANC government. It also had the the personal blessing of President Nelson Mandela “who had delegated Mpumalanga Premier Matthews Phosa to the SACADA Board of Governors.
Premier Phosa, a distinguished ANC politician and among the most prosperous black businessmen in Mpumalanga province (East Transvaal), contributed to laying the political ground work for the expansion of White Afrikaner business interests into neighbouring countries.
The SACADA project was coordinated by the leader of the right wing Freedom Front and former South African Defense Force Chief General Constand Viljoen
Viljoen developed a close personal relationship with Nelson Mandela. He had convinced Mandela that promoting White Afrikaner farms in neighbouring countries “would provide food and employment for locals”. What was not discussed was that this ANC government policy implied a de facto process of land expropriation which went against the basic tenets of the ANC’s struggle for land rights for African peasants.
From the outset, international corporate agribusiness and the World Bank were involved in this project. It is worth noting that during the period of “Transition” preceding the 1994 presidential elections, General Constand Viljoen had been “plotting an Afrikaner guerrilla war against multiracial rule”. (Financial Times, December 5, 2013)
While Mandela “believed in action” … at the core of [his] militancy was always a desire to get the white colonial regime to come to the table and talk.” (Mail and Guardian, December 12, 2013). This stance largely characterized his relationship with General Viljoen.
It is worth noting that in the 1980s General Viljoen as Chief of the South African Defence Force led South African troops into Angola. In 1993, he participated in the establishment of the Right wing racist Afrikaner Volksfront (AVF). He later formed the Freedom Front Party which presented candidates to the April 1994 elections.
The article on Exporting apartheid was the object of controversy.
Its publication in Le Monde diplomatique in April 1997 coincided with the hearings of the South Africa Truth Commission led by Rev Desmond Tutu, which focused on the role of General Constand Viljoen as South African Defense Force Chief during the Apartheid period. (General Viljoen testified in May 1997 before the Truth Commission
The article was the object of a June 1997 law suit claiming defamation directed against the author and Le Monde diplomatique by the South African Chamber for Agricultural Development (SACADA) and the leader of the Freedom Front and former SADF Chief General Constand Viljoen.
The law suit launched in Paris was subsequently thrown out by the Paris Court of Justice.
Michel Chossudovsky, December 12, 2013
Exporting Apartheid to Sub-Saharan Africa
by Michel Chossudovsky
The right wing Afrikaner Freedom Front (FF) headed by General Constand Viljoen plans to develop a “Food Corridor” extending across the Southern part of the continent from Angola to Mozambique. Afrikaner agri-business is to extend its grip into neighbouring countries with large scale investments in commercial farming, food processing and eco-tourism. The agricultural unions of the Orange Free State and Eastern Transvaal are partners; the objective is to set up White-owned farms beyond South Africa’s borders.
The “Food Corridor,” however, does not mean “food for the local people.” On the contrary, under the scheme the peasants will lose their land, with small-holders becoming farm labourers or tenants on large scale plantations owned by the Boers. Moreover, the South African Chamber for Agricultural Development (SACADA) which acts as an umbrella organization also includes, centrally, several right wing organizations including the Freedom Front (FF) led by Viljoen, whose grim record as South African Defence Force (SADF) Commander in Chief during the Apartheid regime is well known.
The Freedom Front, although “moderate” in comparison to Eugene Terre’Blanche’s far-right Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB), is a racist political movement committed to the Afrikaner Volksstaat. The SACADA-Freedom Front initiative has nonetheless the political backing of the African National Congress as well as the personal blessing of President Nelson Mandela who has delegated Mpumalanga Premier Matthews Phosa to the SACADA Board of Governors. All the other governors are members of the Freedom Front. Premier Phosa, a distinguished ANC politician and among the most prosperous black businessmen in Mpumalanga province (East Transvaal), has also contributed to laying the political ground work for the expansion of White Afrikaner business interests into neighbouring countries.
In discussions with President Mandela, General Viljoen had argued that “settling Afrikaner farmers would stimulate the economies of neighbouring states, would provide food and employment for locals, and that this would stem the flow of illegal immigrants into South Africa.” Viljoen has also held high level meetings on Afrikaner agricultural investments with representatives of the European Union, the United Nations and other donor agencies.
In turn, Pretoria is negotiating with several African governments on behalf of SACADA and the Freedom Front. The ANC government is anxious to facilitate the expansion of corporate agri-business into neighbouring countries. As one newspaper account affirms, “Mandela has asked the Tanzanian government to accept Afrikaner farmers to help develop the agricultural sector” while SACADA itself has approached some 12 African countries “interested in White South African farmers.” In a venture set up in 1994 under the South African Development Corporation (SADEVCO), the government of the Congo had granted to the Boers 99 year leases on agricultural land; President Mandela endorsed the scheme calling on African nations “to accept the migrants as a kind of foreign aid.”
The African host countries have on the whole welcomed the inflow of Afrikaner investments. With regard to regulatory policies, however, the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO) (rather than national governments) call the shots, invariably requiring (indebted) countries to accept “a wide open door to foreign capital.” In this context, the liberalization of trade and investment under donor supervision, tends to support the extension of Afrikaner business interests throughout the region. Moreover, in the sleazy environment shaped by transnational corporations and international creditors, corrupt politicians and senior bureaucrats are often co-opted or invited to become the “business partners” of South African and other foreign investors.
The expropriation of peasant lands
The “Food Corridor” initiative will displace a pre-existing agricultural system: it not only appropriates the land, it takes over the host country’s economic and social infrastructure and, almost inevitably, spells increased levels of poverty in the countryside. It will most likely provide a fatal blow to subsistence agriculture as well as to the peasant cash crop economy, displacing local level agricultural markets and aggravating the conditions of endemic famine prevailing in the region. As if this were not enough, Jen Kelenga, a spokesperson for a pro-democracy group in Zaire, also sees, at the heart of the initiative, the Boers “in search of new territories to apply their racist way of living.”
The “Food Corridor” if carried through, could potentially alter the rural landscape of the Southern African region, requiring the uprooting and displacement of small farmers over an extensive territory. Under the proposed scheme, millions of hectares of the best farmland would be handed over to South African agri-business. The Boers are to manage large scale commercial farms using the rural people both as “labour tenants” as well as seasonal agricultural workers.
Under the proposed land legislation, both SACADA and the World Bank nonetheless tout the protection of traditional land rights. The small peasantry is to be “protected” through the establishment of “customary land reserves” established in the immediate vicinity of the White commercial farms. In practice, under the new land legislation, the majority of the rural people will be caged into small territorial enclaves (“communal lands”) while the bulk of the best agricultural land will be sold or leased to private investors.
This also means that peasant communities which practice shifting cultivation over a large land area, as well as pastoralists, will henceforth be prosecuted for encroaching on lands earmarked for commercial farming, often without their prior knowledge. Impoverished by the macro-economic reforms, with no access to credit and modern farm inputs, these customary enclaves will, as noted, constitute “labour reserves” for large scale agri-business.
Afrikaner farms in Mozambique
SACADA has plans to invest in Mozambique, Zaire, Zambia and Angola, “with Mozambique being the test case.” President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and President Nelson Mandela (1994 picture right) signed an intergovernmental agreement in May 1996 which grants rights to Afrikaner agri-business to develop investments in at least six provinces encompassing territorial concessions of some eight million hectares. According to one South African official:
“Mozambique needs the technical expertise and the money, and we have the people … We favour an area which is not heavily populated because it is an Achilles heel if there are too many people on the land … For the Boers, Land is next to God and the Bible.”
In SACADA’s concessionary areas in Mozambique, the Frelimo government will ensure that there is no encroachment; rural small-holders and subsistence farmers (who invariably do not possess legal land titles) will either be expelled or transferred into marginal lands.
In Mozambique’s Nissan province, the best agricultural land is to be leased in concession to the Afrikaners for fifty years. At the token price of some $0.15 per hectare per annum, the land lease is a give-away. Through the establishment of Mosagrius (a joint venture company), SACADA is now firmly established in the fertile valley of the Lugenda river. But the Boers also have their eyes on agricultural areas along the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers as well as on the road and railway facilities linking Lichinga, Niassa’s capital to the deep seaport of Nagala. The railway line is being rehabilitated and modernized (by a French contractor) with development aid provided by France.
In the initial stage of the agreement, concessionary areas in Niassa province were handed over to SACADA in 1996 to be settled by some 500 White Afrikaner farmers. These lands are earmarked for commercial farming in both temperate highveld and sub-tropical lowveld. The available infrastructure including several state buildings and enterprises will also be handed over to the Boers.
The Boers will operate their new farms as part of their business undertakings in South Africa, dispatching White Afrikaner managers and supervisors to Mozambique. The Boers will bring from South Africa their Black right-hand men, their tractor operators, their technicians. In the words of the project liaison officer at the South African High Commission in Maputo: “Each and every Afrikaner farmer will bring his tame Kaffirs” who will be used to supervise the local workers. The number of White settlers in the concessionary areas in Niassa is likely to be small.
SACADA has carefully mapped out the designated areas by helicopter, South Africa’s agricultural research institutes have surveyed the area, providing an assessment of environmental as well as social and demographic conditions.
Creating “rural townships”
Under the SACADA scheme, the rural communities in Niassa which occupy the Afrikaner concessionary areas are to be regrouped into “rural townships” similar to those of the Apartheid regime:
“What you do is to develop villages along the roadside close to the [White] farms. These villages have been planned very carefully [by SACADA] in proximity to the fields so that farm-workers can go back and forth; you give the villages some infrastructure and a plot of land for each household so that the farm-labourers can set up their food gardens.”
Unless token customary land rights are entrenched within or in areas contiguous to the concessions, the peasants will become landless farm labourers or “labour tenants.” Under the latter system applied by the Boers in South Africa since the 19th Century, black peasant households perform labour services (corvée) in exchange for the right to farm a small parcel of land. Formally outlawed in South Africa in 1960 by the Nationalist government, “labour tenancy” remains in existence in many parts of South Africa including East Transvaal and Kwa-Zulu Natal. Its reproduction in the form of rural townships in Mozambique will provide reserves of cheap labour for the White commercial farms.
This, plus the increasing derogation of workers rights in Mozambique and the deregulation of the labour market there under IMF advice, will enable the Boers not only to pay their Mozambican workers excessively low wages but also to escape the demands of Black agricultural workers in South Africa. Moreover, under the Mosagrius Agreement the Mozambican government will be fully responsible in dealing with land disputes and ensuring the expropriation of peasant lands “without prejudice or loss that may occur from such claims to SDM [Mosagrius] and other Mosagrius participants.”
Small wonder, then, that South Africa’s major commercial banks, the World Bank and the European Union have firmly backed the project. Indeed, “the Food Corridor” has become an integral part of the IMF-World Bank sponsored structural adjustment programme in Mozambique. In the words of SACADA Secretary Willie Jordaan: “SACADA has endeavoured to bring its policies in line with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and [is]set to become an international development agency” with a mandate to contract with donor institutions and carry out “foreign aid programmes” on their behalf.
The international community
In short, while the international community had endorsed ANC’s struggle against the Apartheid regime, it is now providing financial support to a racist Afrikaner development organization. Under the disguise of “foreign aid,” Western donors are in fact contributing to the extension of the Apartheid system into neighbouring countries. The European Union has provided money to SACADA out of a development package explicitly earmarked by Brussels for South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Programme. According to an EU spokesman, the project “was the best noise out of Africa in 30 years.” The EU Ambassador to South Africa Mr. Erwan Fouéré met General Viljoen to discuss the project. Fouéré confirmed that if all goes well, further EU money could be made available to cover the costs of “settling Afrikaner farmers in South Africa’s neighbouring countries.”
The initiative is categorized by the donor community as a bona fide development project which will benefit the peasantry in the host country as well contribute to South Africa’s Reconstruction. The fact that the scheme derogates the land rights of small-holders and replicates the system of “labour tenancy” prevalent in South Africa under Apartheid is not a matter for discussion.
Moreover, national investment priorities set by the donors in neighbouring countries (under the World Bank sponsored Public Investment Programme), are increasingly tuned to meeting the needs of South African business interests. In Mozambique, for instance, so-called “targeted investments” are undertaken with a view to rehabilitating port facilities, roads, water resources, river and lake transportation, etc. largely to the benefit of South African investors including SACADA.
Moreover, under the SACADA Agreement, Afrikaner investors “shall be allowed a right of first refusal” in privatization tenders in concessionary areas under their jurisdiction. In turn the country’s investment legislation (drafted with the technical assistance of the World Bank) will provide for the free remittance of corporate profits and the repatriation of capital back to South Africa.
The SACADA scheme is also likely to suck up a portion of the State’s meagre health and education budget. In Mozambique, under the terms of the Agreement the authorities are also to support the provision of Western-style health services as well as create a “sanitary environment” for the White Afrikaners settling in the territory. Part of the money provided by donors and international organizations for social programmes will also be channelled towards the concessionary areas.
Recolonization?
Add to these enormities the fact that the “export of Apartheid” to neighbouring countries seems to exemplify a literal “carving up” of national territories into concessionary areas. In Mozambique, for example, an autonomous territory – “a State within a State” – is being developed initially in Niassa province; the Mosagrius project controlled by the Boers (overriding the national and provincial governments) is the sole authority concerning the utilization rights of land in its concessionary areas (clause 34); similarly the territory is defined as a free trade zone allowing for the unimpeded movement of goods, capital and people (meaning White South Africans). All investments in the concessionary areas “will be free from customs duties, or other fiscal impositions.” In this way, concessions granted to foreign investors in various parts of the country (a pattern that is being duplicated [see accompanying box] in the tourism sphere, including in Niassa Province itself) begin to define a recasting of national territory into a number of separate “corridors” that is eerily reminiscent of the colonial period.
In short, the system of territorial concessions – with each of the corridors integrated separately into the world market – tends to favours the demise of the national economy. And the falling of such corridors under the political custody of donors, non-governmental organizations and foreign investors also means that these latter constitute a de facto “parallel government” which increasingly bypasses the State system. But this latter process dovetails neatly with other demands of donors, their requirement (in the name of “governance”) of the down-sizing of the central State and the “decentralization” of decision-making to the provincial and district levels. Rather than providing added powers and resources to regional and local communities, however, State revenues will be channelled towards servicing Mozambique’s external debt with “decentralization” predicated on fiscal austerity under the structural adjustment programme. Add all this up and the result is a considerable weakening of both the central and regional governments, and a further reinforcement of Mozambique’s recolonization.
One may speculate, finally, as to why the ANC has made itself such a vigorous party to this process. Most charitably, one may conclude that the ANC has championed – albeit without serious debate or discussion – the granting of “Land to the Boers” in neighbouring countries as a means to relieving land pressures within South Africa: the policy is said to facilitate the ANC’s land redistribution programme in favour of Black farmers.
Of course, there are good reasons to believe that, despite its merits, South Africa’s Land Reform Programme is unlikely to succeed, this programme being increasingly undermined by the post-Apartheid government’s own sweeping macro-economic reforms under the neoliberal policy agenda. In rural South Africa, the removal of agricultural subsidies, the deregulation of credit and trade liberalization (which is part of the Macro-economic Framework) have not only contributed to the further impoverishment of Black small-holders and tenant farmers, the measures have also pushed numerous White Afrikaner family farms into bankruptcy. Pretoria’s structural adjustment programme thereby favours an even greater concentration of farmland than during the Apartheid regime as well as the consolidation of corporate agriculture both within and beyond South Africa’s borders.
In other words, the Boers “Second Great Trek” to neighbouring countries does not contribute to relieving land pressures within South Africa. In fact the policy accomplishes exactly the opposite results: it maintains Black farmers in marginal lands under the old system of segregation. Moreover, it reinforces corporate control over the best farmland while also providing a political avenue to Afrikaner agri-business for “exporting Apartheid” to the entire Southern African region.
Note
Most of Mozambique’s coastline on lake Niassa – including a 160 km. stretch in the Rift Valley from Meponda to Mapangula extending further North to Ilha sobre o Lago close to the Tanzanian border – has been designated under the project “for tourism and other complementary and subsidiary activities [which are] ecologically sustainable.” The latter also include designated areas for Afrikaner investments in fishing and aquaculture on lake Niassa (displacing the local fishing industry). In turn, the Agreement hands over to the Boers, the development and operation rights over the Niassa Game Reserve on the Tanzanian border. The Reserve includes an extensive area of some 20,000 hectares earmarked for so-called “ecologically sustainable ecotourism.”
In a much larger undertaking, James Ulysses Blanchard III the notorious Texan tycoon, has been granted a concession over a vast territory which includes the Maputo Elephant Reserve and the adjoining Machangula peninsula south of Maputo. During the Mozambican civil war, Blanchard had provided financial backing to Renamo, the rebel organization directly supported by the Apartheid regime and trained by the South African Defence Force (SADF).
Blanchard intends to create an Indian Ocean Dream Park with a floating hotel, deluxe tourist lodges at $600 – $800 a night and a casino. Large parcels of land in Manchangula have also been allocated to agricultural investors from Eastern Transvaal.
Local communities in Blanchard’s concessionary area will be expropriated; in the words of his general manager, John Perrot:
“We’re gonna come here and say [to the local villagers] `Okay, now you’re in a national park. Your village can either get fenced or you can have them wild animals walking right through your main street’.” (M.C.)
Labels: APARTHEID, IMF, LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS
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Customary land ban angers Puta
By Godfrey Chikumbi in Kawambwa
Mon 16 Dec. 2013, 14:01 CAT
COMMENT - This is why the neolibera dogma of wanting title deeds so that land can be collateral for banks to lend money is such a bad idea. There are too many poor people around just to give people land only. There has to be a comprehensive agricultural development campaign, to provide people with access to small machinery, markets, and advisers - and permaculture is the way to go. - MrK
SENIOR Chief Puta of the Bwile people in Chienge district says the decision by Minister of Lands Harry Kalaba to ban the sale of customary land has angered chiefs in the country.
The government has with immediate effect banned the sale of customary land. Addressing journalists in Lusaka last week, Kalaba directed the Commissioner of Lands and councils countrywide not to process any papers relating to the sale of customary land.
Kalaba also explained that customary land which had been illegally sold would be repossessed and that the ministry would carry out an audit on such land. But chief Puta said the government decision had annoyed him and other chiefs in the country.
He said it was a sign of disrespect and negligence for Kalaba to accuse chiefs of selling land without specifying particular chiefs.
"Honourable Kalaba shouldn't scandalise chiefs. The whites (colonial masters) respected us that's why they recognised us as chiefs, senior and paramount chiefs. His (Kalaba) statement has angered all the chiefs in the country. He should mention chiefs who have been selling land. If he has some chiefs where he comes from, they should be made to answer to the charges in the House of Chiefs. My tradition in Bwile chiefdom doesn't allow me to sell land, we have the Bwile Development Trust chaired by a chairperson," he said.
"If you want a mine in the chiefdom, you can write to the Bwile Royal Council and we can give you with a percentage to the Bwile Development Trust and that money goes to develop the chiefdom."
He said the ban on the sale of customary land did not affect his chiefdom because there was a system that dealt with land and not him as a traditional leader.
"If you come to my chiefdom looking for a mine, it is not the senior chief to issue a licence, it is the Ministry of Mines. I just issue a letter of consent. Now who is more corrupt between the one who issues a licence and the one who just consents?" he asked.
He said as a custodian of customary land, he safeguarded land for his subjects and had power to apportion land to whoever applied through the Bwile Royal Council.
The traditional leader said he was disapointed that the statement was coming from Kalaba who he said came from the royal family.
He claimed that Kalaba issued the directive out of excitement without knowing it would annoy and hurt chiefs.
"Honourable Kalaba is our own son as a prince who should have respect for chiefs. I don't think President (Michael) Sata can tell him to do that; the Head of State has respect for chiefs, that's why he created the Ministry of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs. But we don't allow those negligent and disrespectful statements, it pains me a lot," said Chief Puta.
"They (government) are locking themselves, you know you can't do anything in the chiefdom without the hand of the chief. I don't know why these politicians forget so easily. They only respect us during campaigns; after the elections they forget about us," he said.
Labels: CHIEF PUTA, FDI, HARRY KALABA, LAND RIGHTS
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Masvingo gran, 64, jailed for farm invasion
10/12/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
COMMENT - Oh she's 'a gran' now. By the way, 20 hectares is nothing, compared to the commercial estates that existed before land reform - 2,500 hectars on average. The average EU farm is 90 hectares. - MrK
A MASVINGO gran, 64, has been sentenced to an effective nine months behind bars for invading a farm belonging to a prominent local businesswoman.
Zvichareva Chitengu’s case was not helped by the fact that she had also defied an earlier court order to vacate the property which belongs to Varaidzo Chidaku, 33.
Masvingo magistrate Dorothy Mwanyisa was told Tuesday that Chitengu invaded Keit View farm in 2008 and started putting up her homestead and preparing lands for farming without the approval of Chidaku.
After noticing that a section of the 20 hectare property was being cleared for farming activities, the owner approached the courts for relief and Chitengu and her family were ordered to vacate the farm.
But Chitengu is said to have defied the order, claiming she was destitute and had nowhere else to go.
Prosecuting, Jimmy Nyamapfeni reminded the court that Chitengu was initially sentenced to one month imprisonment in 2008 for illegally occupying the farm.
He also said the elderly woman lied to the courts that she had no children yet she was living with her two daughters and grandchildren on the property.
Chitengu urged the court to show mercy but the magistrate was not impressed and ordered her jailed for nine months.
Labels: LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS
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(SUNDAY MAIL ZW) Govt probes land deals
Sunday, 01 December 2013 00:00
Sunday Mail Reporter
Government has ordered provincial land committees in Masvingo and Mashonaland West to investigate allegations that some land reform beneficiaries are subletting land to former white commercial farmers.
Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora disclosed that his office is receiving disturbing reports that indicate that some land reform beneficiaries are covertly getting into partnerships with former commercial farmers. Dr Mombeshora noted the sub-letting of land is illegal.
“I have since advised the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs for Masvingo Province Cde Kudakwashe Bhasikiti to assist members of the provincial land committee in carrying out proper investigations into the underhand land deals that are said to be going on in Masvingo East district.
As a ministry we are disturbed and keen to ascertain the ownership status of the farms in the district hence Cde Bhasikiti and his team will carry investigations and present a report to us so that we can take appropriate action.
“The provincial lands committee comprises of members of the security sector, so it is possible that the police will assist in these investigations,” said Dr Mombeshora.
Since last year hundreds of landless villagers from Zaka, Bikita, Gutu and Chivi have been occupying farms in Masvingo East district, setting up makeshift structures arguing that the new black owners were proxies of former farmers. Police at one time moved in and destroyed the structures on the farms but the land-hungry villagers refused to move.
Dr Mombeshora added that there are also reports that leasing of land was also rampant in Mashonaland West province.
Commenting on a proposed land audit, Cde Mombeshora revealed that a funding request has since been presented to Treasury.
“We have submitted our presentation to Treasury and once our budget is approved we will then carry out the audit countrywide,” he said.
Labels: LAND AUDIT, LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS
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Twenty Zambians Held in Malawi
By Staff Reporters
Fri 29 Nov. 2013, 11:00 CAT
TWENTY Zambians are currently being held in Malawi's Kasungu Prison after being convicted of encroaching in Kasungu National Park.
According to a statement issued by Chansa Kabwela who is First Secretary Press, the 20 nationals with eight others, all of chief Chanje's area in Chipata, were arrested last Sunday and charged with illegally settling in a game management area, illegally cutting trees and cultivating in a game management area, and illegally hunting game in a protected area.
They were then taken to the Kasungu First Grade Magistrates Court where they were prosecuted on Monday and found guilty of contravening the National Parks and Wildlife Act of Malawi. Of the 28, eight were given suspended sentences on account of old age and poor health while 20 were each fined MK45,000 (K675) in default three years imprisonment.
The 20 are yet to source money to pay for them to be released.
Zambia's High Commissioner to Malawi Charles Banda noted with sadness the predicament the Zambians nationals were in.
High Commissioner Banda appealed to traditional leaders in Chipata and well-wishers to help the Zambians with finances so that they could be released from prison.
High Commissioner Banda urged chief Chanje to look for alternative land in Zambia for his subjects so that they do not return to Kasungu National Park once they are released from prison.
The problem of encroachment in Kasungu National Park arose from the demarcation of the boundary between Zambia and Malawi and nationals of both countries have in the past been relocated from the park to other areas. In July this year, Zambian nationals of chief Mwasempangwe's area who were in the park were resettled successfully on the Zambian side.
Labels: CHANSA KABWELA, GAME PARKS, LAND RIGHTS, MALAWI
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Twenty Zambians Held in Malawi
By Staff Reporters
Fri 29 Nov. 2013, 11:00 CAT
TWENTY Zambians are currently being held in Malawi's Kasungu Prison after being convicted of encroaching in Kasungu National Park.
According to a statement issued by Chansa Kabwela who is First Secretary Press, the 20 nationals with eight others, all of chief Chanje's area in Chipata, were arrested last Sunday and charged with illegally settling in a game management area, illegally cutting trees and cultivating in a game management area, and illegally hunting game in a protected area.
They were then taken to the Kasungu First Grade Magistrates Court where they were prosecuted on Monday and found guilty of contravening the National Parks and Wildlife Act of Malawi. Of the 28, eight were given suspended sentences on account of old age and poor health while 20 were each fined MK45,000 (K675) in default three years imprisonment.
The 20 are yet to source money to pay for them to be released.
Zambia's High Commissioner to Malawi Charles Banda noted with sadness the predicament the Zambians nationals were in.
High Commissioner Banda appealed to traditional leaders in Chipata and well-wishers to help the Zambians with finances so that they could be released from prison.
High Commissioner Banda urged chief Chanje to look for alternative land in Zambia for his subjects so that they do not return to Kasungu National Park once they are released from prison.
The problem of encroachment in Kasungu National Park arose from the demarcation of the boundary between Zambia and Malawi and nationals of both countries have in the past been relocated from the park to other areas. In July this year, Zambian nationals of chief Mwasempangwe's area who were in the park were resettled successfully on the Zambian side.
Labels: GAME PARKS, LAND RIGHTS, MALAWI
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'Massive land grabbing by foreign companies'
By Editor
Tue 29 Oct. 2013, 14:00 CAT
A lot of care needs to be taken by the government when it comes to giving land to transnational corporations. We are lucky that a great part of our land is not in the hands of transnational corporations like it is in some countries of our region. It will be a huge mistake to hand over to these corporations our land rights, the rights that our forefathers defended.
We all know that part of the land that some people and enterprises own today was obtained by unjust means. And as a result of this, landlessness continues to disadvantage many of our people; it deprives them, to a considerable extent, of an important source of economic security; and it forces them, on unequal terms to provide the cheap labour which results in increased profit for those who benefit most from our natural resources.
The issue of land reform is of great importance in determining the future of our country and the well-being of our people. We are grateful that our government has realised this and is not very eager to parcel out land to transnational corporations.
There has to be continuous vigilance about the justice dimensions of the way land is given to transnational corporations.
There are attempts by First Quantum Minerals to be given title deeds to 600 square kilometres of land in North Western Province. The government, especially the President, has been very reluctant to give this title despite heavy lobbying by First Quantum Minerals. A lot of care needs to be taken in dealing with issues of land because land is a national heritage.
In principle, given our democratic society, huge tracts of land like the one First Quantum Minerals is seeking title to should not be parcelled out without public discourse. This should never be done without the issue being publicly debated, democratically decided and widely publicised.
And when it comes to land issues, special consideration should be given to Zambians, especially the people in the rural areas. Land should not be taken away from them. Small farmers should be given the opportunity to own the land they need and they should be offered title deeds to that land.
Those who live on trust lands, the chiefs and the peasants, should be given the opportunity to participate in decisions to parcel out land in their areas and their contributions and concerns should be given serious consideration.
We should never allow a situation where our rural people are dispossessed of their land and turned into labourers on plantations which belong to wealthy individuals, local, foreign or multinational. This apprehension is not far-fetched because we know all too well that numerous countries in the world are victims of such practices. Rural life should be protected and promoted. Economic considerations alone must not determine the direction of our land decisions. The whole social fabric of the present and future Zambia must be considered.
And we make a strong appeal to our chiefs not to betray their people by yielding to pressures of bribes or any such favours in exchange for their offering of land to potential landlords, foreign or local. The future of the people must come first.
In our Christian tradition, the biblical perspective tells us that land is a sacred trust given by God to the people for the benefit of all people. We feel that this perspective should inform the decisions and actions of our leaders and other decision makers so that social justice and concern for the poor will mark every parcelling out of land.
We accordingly share the concerns being raised by Southern Africa Development Community church organisations over land policies and decisions in our region. The criticisms these organisations are making over the way some of our governments have behaved or are behaving are justified. Our church organisations have criticised some governments of our region for betraying the people by allowing mass land grabbing by foreign multinationals. They have singled out national elites and government as the major actors in land grabbing. They feel that lax laws were allowing rich foreign corporations to displace the poor to pave way for mining, game reserves, golf estates and agricultural activities in pursuit of their own profits.
Truly, the poor seem to have lost importance in the eyes of our politicians and other leaders when it comes to dealings with transnational corporations. The interests of transnational corporations seem to be placed ahead of our governments' duties to protect our poor people's land rights.
There is a lot of carelessness, even where corruption is not an issue, when it comes to dealing with transnational corporations seeking land.
There is too much land being given to foreigners who are simply holding it in all sorts of ways for speculative purposes. They are being given huge tracts of land for game ranching, whose contribution to the economy and creation of employment is minimal. And here, the intention of these so-called foreign investors is very clear - it is to hold huge tracts of land at a minimal cost. And game ranching is a good vehicle for this.
There is also the danger of giving mining corporations much more land than their immediate mining needs demand. This may create problems in the medium to long term.
In saying all this, we are not in any way being anti-foreign investment. All we are saying is that we have to be very prudent in the way we parcel out land. We are probably the only continent in the world that is giving out land for free to transnational corporations. Nobody obtains land in this way in Europe or America. We don't think even in Asia land can be obtained in this way.
We seem to have a new scramble for Africa. We need to act more intelligently and break out of the vicious circle of dependence and exploitation imposed on us by the financially powerful; those in command of immense market power and those who dare to fashion the world in their own image.
As Nelson Mandela once observed, "Africa, more than any other continent, has to contend with the consequences of conquest in a denial of its own role in history, including the denial that its people had the capacity to bring about change and progress. It would be a cruel irony if Africa's actions to regenerate the continent were to unleash a new scramble for Africa which, like that of the nineteenth century, plundered the continent's wealth and left it once more the poorer."
Labels: LAND RIGHTS
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(HERALD ZW) Latest: Land audit on cards
October 10, 2013 Costa Mano Headlines, Top Stories
Herald Reporter
Land audit is on the cards to ascertain the number of beneficiaries of land reform and establish those that are productively using the land.
In an interview, Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora said the audit would determine whether or not Government still needed to acquire more land for resettlement.
“We plan to do an audit to see how many farms have been distributed and how many have taken up what they were offered,” he said.
“The audit will also give us an insight if there is still need for us to acquire more land.”
Details to follow…
Labels: LAND AUDIT, LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS
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(NEWZIMBABWE, IRIN) Corrupt traditional leaders profit from illegal land sales
08/10/2013 00:00:00
by IRIN
IN the past decade, 60-year-old Josiah Makasha, in the rural Seke district outside the dormitory town of Chitungwiza, some 35 km north of Harare, has seen urban sprawl shrink pastures and deplete his cattle herd by two-thirds.
Makasha used to have 15 head of cattle, but now makes do with five. “There is hardly any more grazing land for our cattle, so we don’t have a choice but to keep small herds. Our land has been taken over by people from the city who are buying plots and building houses,” he told IRIN.
For Seke's villagers, the receding pastures are not their only problem. Traditional leaders - empowered to distribute land to members of their communities - are reducing the sizes of plots to sell parts of the land to buyers from Chitungwiza and Harare for personal profit.
“It seems we will soon end up as backyard tenants in the land of our ancestors. Our headmen are the main culprits as they are enriching themselves at the expense of the villagers by selling the land that is supposed to belong to us as a community. Our children have nowhere to go and end up cramped on our homesteads,” Makasha said.
The traditional leaders, Makasha said, are supposed to accept a nominal fee of US$7 from local community members receiving new plots, after which the community members are supposed to pay $5 annually in tenure fees. But instead, the headmen are selling two-hectare plots for as much as $4,000 to home seekers from urban areas.
As a result of the widespread sale of land in the district by headmen and chiefs, he said, villagers have reduced space to plant crops and engage in market gardening, particularly the production of green vegetables and tomatoes that provide extra income to local families.
Encroachment
Warship Dumba, the president of the Elected Councillors Association of Zimbabwe, a group promoting the interests of councillors and serving as a watchdog that monitors municipal authorities, is worried about the unplanned encroachment into rural areas.
“The situation is common in rural areas that border cities and towns and seems to be getting out of hand. Traditional leaders are conniving with chiefs and district administrators to grab land from helpless villagers, and of major concern is the fact that this is making rural dwellers poorer while a few individuals get richer.
“There is no doubt that cities like Harare and Chitungwiza have serious housing problems, but it is not acceptable to change land use without following proper procedures,” Dumba, who said his organization has carried out several investigations, told IRIN.
Surplus land has long been held in custody by the traditional leaders to distribute to expanding families among local communities. But growing demand for accommodation from nearby urban areas has turned places like Seke into a sprawling residential areas for urban dwellers.
Low-budget houses have sprouted in rural Seke over the past 15 years, particularly in the last four years, according to Makasha, taking up hundreds of hectares of land that should be reserved for the local people.
Unofficial estimates indicate that Harare and Chitungwiza, the latter having been built to cater mainly for commuters working in the capital, have an estimated housing backlog of over two million units, against a combined population of about four million.
Commercial use
Some of the people buying rural land in rural areas surrounding the two cities of Harare and Chitungwiza are also doing so for commercial purposes.
Simon Makuvaza, 42, a senior bank employee in the capital, runs a thriving piggery project on two hectares that he bought three years ago from a headman whose village is in Seke.
He has built a small cottage for two workers who tend his pigs, as well as pens and water reservoirs occupying slightly under a hectare. He has reserved the rest of the land for chicken farming and a fish pond.
His plot is one of the numerous pieces of land that extend into what used to be grazing wetlands.
“The purchase of this land was done secretly because it is illegal. The headman claimed to the chief that I am his nephew who was desperate for land and, in that regard, I am covered,” said Makuvaza, whose pigs number more than 500. He paid $4,000 for the plot, he told IRIN.
The headman, he said, persuaded the two families that occupied the land to move to a smaller space on the outskirts of the village, where the soil is sandy and therefore unproductive.
One of the headmen, Patrick Gonyora*, 65, says the illegal sale of communal land has transformed his family’s life.
He has been selling pieces of land to individuals from Harare and Chitungwiza since 2009, when he was made a traditional leader, taking over from his late brother. With profits from the illegal sales of land in his village, he turned his four-room thatched house into a modern one, complete with electricity.
He also runs piggery and poultry projects that he started with the money he gets from land buyers, and owns a used imported truck from Japan.
“Whenever I sell a piece of land, I notify the chief. I have the right to give land to people who want it, but these days, nothing comes free of charge, so they have to pay,” Gonyora told IRIN.
“I know that there are villagers who have been complaining to the chief that I am reducing land meant for farming and grazing, but I don’t care. I am benefiting from the powers that I was given as a headman.”
Municipalities
Ignatius Chombo, the local government minister whose ministry controls land acquisitions in urban and rural areas, however, told IRIN that traditional leaders did not have the power to sell land to private individuals.
“Traditional leaders are custodians of the communal land and it is illegal for them to sell it, so they risk being prosecuted. Those that buy the land are also doing it illegally, and there is no way in which they can have title deeds, so they would be removed once they are known; they are not entitled to compensation,” said Chombo.
He said: “It is unacceptable that the traditional leaders are changing land use by selling plots for residential and commercial purposes, a trend that disturbs villagers’ livelihoods.”
Unlike private buyers, municipalities are legally permitted to take over land within their districts, said Chombo. Many rural municipalities have worsened the situation for villagers by expanding into villagers’ land to build houses for employees, local businesses and workers at rural business centres.
Chombo urged rural district councils to ensure that villagers are not disadvantaged when their plots are taken over by municipalities for commercial and housing projects. District councils must not move people without finding alternative places to settle them, he said.
His words, however, could come too late for Kerina Juru, 65, from rural Goromonzi. The local district council wants her homestead for a housing project for its employees and business owners at the nearby business growth centre.
“City council officials came here last month and told me that I had to move within six months because they want to build houses here. They said it was my duty to find an alternative place to go, but where will I find the land?” she told IRIN.
Forced removal
Caring for her four grandchildren after their mother's death a few years ago, Juru worries she will be forced to sell her four head of cattle to buy a new plot elsewhere. “I am not sure if I will be able to find a school near enough for my grandchildren,” she said.
Since 2005, she said, the Goromonzi rural district council has moved scores of families from the village. Some of them have been lucky enough to acquire new land in other villages, while others have resorted to “squatting” with their relatives.
“This forced removal of villagers is ruthless. Many families are now struggling to grow enough crops to feed their families, and the situation has been worsened by the fact that the rains are no longer reliable these days,” Juru said.
Labels: CHIEFS, CORRUPTION, IGNATIUS CHOMBO, LAND RIGHTS
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(MONITOR UG) Apaa locals demand meeting with Museveni over land row
By Cissy Makumbi
Posted Thursday, September 27 2012 at 01:00
An elder speaks during a meeting in Pabbo Sub-county headquarters on Saturday. Locals resolved to meet the President over the Apaa land stand-off. PHOTO BY CISSY MAKUMBI.
In Summary
Pabbo Clan chief says he cannot sit by and watch his subjects become squatters on their own land.
Amuru
Residents of Apaa Village, in Pabbo Sub-county in Amuru District are demanding audience with President Museveni following escalating land wrangles between them and the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
UWA has in the recent past evicted 6,000 residents from a disputed piece of land in Apaa that the Authority says belongs to East Madi Game Reserve. However, residents claim the 825 square kilometers of land is their ancestral property.
During a meeting over the standoff on Saturday, the residents resolved that since local mechanisms earlier used, including court, failed to solve the problem, they want the President’s intervention as many of them have become squatters.
Pabbo clan chief Jakeo Acaye Agole said he will not sit by and watch as violence is meted on his subjects by UWA warders, backed by the army and police, as well as eviction and destruction of their property. “I will spearhead the meeting with the President so that our people [can] settle once and for all to focus on development,” Mr Agole said, adding that it’s shameful to see his people suffer on their own land.
Pabbo Sub-county chairman Christopher Ojera, also an NRM party mobiliser, said it is important that the President listens to the people’s plea since many of them have nowhere to settle. He said residents who have settled on a particular land should not be disturbed and instead the area de-gazetted as land for settlement. “... but the unoccupied areas should be left as a game reserve,” he added.
The disputed area had 1,700 households, many of which had just resettled after leaving IDP camps.
But following the evictions, many people returned to former Pabbo IDP camp where they stayed for years during the LRA insurgency.
editorial@ug.nationmedia.com
Labels: LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS, WILDLIFE
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Govt to sensitise public on land acquisition
By Steve Mwiinga and Snike Mzulah in Siavonga
Sat 20 July 2013, 14:00 CAT
LANDS minister Wylbur Simuusa says the ministry will soon embark on sensitisation programmes on the procedures of acquiring land with the help of councils across the country.
And Simuusa has reaffirmed the government's commitment towards escalating cross-border relations.
Speaking when he met heads of government departments at the district commissioner's office in Siavonga, Simmusa said this was so because the levels of ignorance on the process to follow when acquiring land by most people in the country were worrying.
He attributed this to lack of adherence to laid down procedures when acquiring land by the majority Zambians.
"Those people who fight each other because they don't want to follow the procedures when acquiring land, as government and the ministry, we are saying we will go in there and see who is wrong and deal with that person. However we are immediately going to work with the council to help educate the people on how to acquire land," he said.
Simuusa also appealed to Zambians to take part in putting to an end the corrupt practices in land acquisition.
He also bemoaned the high levels of deforestation in the country saying Zambia had the highest deforestation rate in the world.
"I am already seeing a desert like here in Siavonga', and Southern Province is drying upon because of deforestation and trees which are being cut to increase agriculture. However, I am working with the agriculture minister to restore the environment because agriculture is one of the drivers of deforestation," he said.
He stated that charcoal burning was also another driver of deforestation in the country specially in places like Siavonga.
"As government' we don't recognise charcoal burning because we don't get any ngwee. Instead, it just increases deforestation but very soon we will have a charcoal indaba where we will discuss issues pertaining to charcoal burning'' he said.
And speaking when he officially opened the midterm review workshop for Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania International Boundaries in Siavonga at Lake Safari Lodge, Simuusa said the demarcation and reaffirmation of boundaries would guarantee peaceful co-existence of nations living in border areas.
"The demarcation and reaffirmation of our boundaries will guarantee peaceful co-existence of our nationals living in the border areas and will propagate the good and cordial relations that our countries have enjoyed," he said
He observed that a well delimited, demarcated and reaffirmed border could be used as a factor for peace, security, economic and social development.
"A well delimited, demarcated and reaffirmed border is a factor for peace, security and economic and social progress," said Simmusa.
Labels: LAND RIGHTS, WYLBUR SIMUUSA
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Kafue businessman, residents in dispute over land
By Oswald Sichone
Sat 06 July 2013, 14:01 CAT
KAFUE member of parliament Obvious Mwaliteta says there is urgent need to have the land Act reviewed if land wrangles are to be reduced.
Addressing angry Zambia Compound residents who stormed his office to complain about the alleged fencing of the river frontage by a local businessman, Peter Hatuma of PH Motors, Mwaliteta expressed concern at the growing land wrangles in the district and urged the residents to remain calm but protect their interest.
Mwaliteta said water was a natural resource which should be enjoyed by everyone because it was God-given.
He promised to engage the commissioner of lands so that the title deed given to Hatuma could be reviewed because people were being denied access to the river.
Mwaliteta instructed Kafue district council director of works Stanley Chanda to survey the land in question and make recommendations to the commissioner of lands on what need to be done over the disputed land.
Speaking on behalf of the residents, Chrispin Phiri urged the government to review the title given to Hatuma, alleging that he had barred them from drawing water from Kafue River as a result of the electric fence which was razed on Thursday by irate residents who also threatened to bring down his house.
Phiri said that most residents of Zambia Compound were fishermen who earned their living by fishing on the Kafue River and that denying them access to the river was as bad as killing them.
He accused Hatuma of extending his boundary thereby encroaching in some of residents' plots, sparking the violence.
The irate residents then razed the wildlife fence in full view of Mwaliteta, who however, pleaded with them not to take the law in their own hands but allow the law to take its course.
And in a letter addressed to the officer-in-charge at Kafue Police Station dated July 4, 2013, and copied to the Inspector General of Police and the National Assembly office in Kafue, Hatuma accused Mwaliteta of instigating Zambia Compound residents by promising that he would give them part of his land.
Hatuma stated that he was the rightful owner of the land in question as he had title deeds.
He stated that the damage caused to the farm was in millions.
"I have the title to the farm between Zambia Compound and the Kafue River. The farm was fenced with an electric fence but the whole fence was stolen by known people. I have now started to put a game fence, but known people are causing problems, even uprooting the poles of the fence. I am reliably informed that the area MP was on site when these people started breaking down the concrete poles that were erected by workers. Now what should I do to these people? If I take the law in my hands, you will arrest me. If I report, nothing happens. As I write this letter, my workers are under fear of death by the same hooligans who are known," read the letter.
Hatuma denied having fenced the river front, saying he only fenced part of the farm where he had built some fish ponds and harbour to avoid pilferage.
He denied encroaching on anyone's land and urged those involved to follow the rightful procedure to avoid legal action.
According to the certificate of title no 2911 sub division 619 of 1052/m, Hatuma acquired the land marked 619,620,621 and 622 on November 28, 2001.
Labels: KAFUE, LAND RIGHTS, OBVIOUS MWALETITA
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Kafue businessman, residents in dispute over land
By Oswald Sichone
Sat 06 July 2013, 14:01 CAT
KAFUE member of parliament Obvious Mwaliteta says there is urgent need to have the land Act reviewed if land wrangles are to be reduced.
Addressing angry Zambia Compound residents who stormed his office to complain about the alleged fencing of the river frontage by a local businessman, Peter Hatuma of PH Motors, Mwaliteta expressed concern at the growing land wrangles in the district and urged the residents to remain calm but protect their interest.
Mwaliteta said water was a natural resource which should be enjoyed by everyone because it was God-given.
He promised to engage the commissioner of lands so that the title deed given to Hatuma could be reviewed because people were being denied access to the river.
Mwaliteta instructed Kafue district council director of works Stanley Chanda to survey the land in question and make recommendations to the commissioner of lands on what need to be done over the disputed land.
Speaking on behalf of the residents, Chrispin Phiri urged the government to review the title given to Hatuma, alleging that he had barred them from drawing water from Kafue River as a result of the electric fence which was razed on Thursday by irate residents who also threatened to bring down his house.
Phiri said that most residents of Zambia Compound were fishermen who earned their living by fishing on the Kafue River and that denying them access to the river was as bad as killing them.
He accused Hatuma of extending his boundary thereby encroaching in some of residents' plots, sparking the violence.
The irate residents then razed the wildlife fence in full view of Mwaliteta, who however, pleaded with them not to take the law in their own hands but allow the law to take its course.
And in a letter addressed to the officer-in-charge at Kafue Police Station dated July 4, 2013, and copied to the Inspector General of Police and the National Assembly office in Kafue, Hatuma accused Mwaliteta of instigating Zambia Compound residents by promising that he would give them part of his land.
Hatuma stated that he was the rightful owner of the land in question as he had title deeds.
He stated that the damage caused to the farm was in millions.
"I have the title to the farm between Zambia Compound and the Kafue River. The farm was fenced with an electric fence but the whole fence was stolen by known people. I have now started to put a game fence, but known people are causing problems, even uprooting the poles of the fence. I am reliably informed that the area MP was on site when these people started breaking down the concrete poles that were erected by workers. Now what should I do to these people? If I take the law in my hands, you will arrest me. If I report, nothing happens. As I write this letter, my workers are under fear of death by the same hooligans who are known," read the letter.
Hatuma denied having fenced the river front, saying he only fenced part of the farm where he had built some fish ponds and harbour to avoid pilferage.
He denied encroaching on anyone's land and urged those involved to follow the rightful procedure to avoid legal action.
According to the certificate of title no 2911 sub division 619 of 1052/m, Hatuma acquired the land marked 619,620,621 and 622 on November 28, 2001.
Labels: LAND RIGHTS, OBVIOUS MWALITETA
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(NEWZIMBABWE) Villagers in court for invading State farm
02/07/2013 00:00:00
by Staff Reporter
COMMENT - Oh yes, the 'Africans as destructive farmers' myth, regurgitated by this MDC slave. I guess we are going to get more MDC articles during election time, at Newzimbabwe.com. This article is of course woefully short on detail. Who were these villagers, what was their relation to this land, who called the police on them, etc. Context, as it is called. - MrK
A GROUP of nine villagers have appeared in court charged with illegally invading a State-owned farm in Umzingwane District and
wreaking havoc on the property as they allocated themselves farming plots and housing stands.
The nine villagers, from Mbalabala farming area appeared before Esigodini magistrate Lungile Ncube on Tuesday after they tried to take over Mziki farm without following laid down procedures. They however pleaded not guilty and were remanded in custody to Wednesday.
Prosecutor Eric Murinye said the villagers invaded the farm at the start of last month and proceeded to allocate themselves plots, in the process cutting down trees and burning vegetation as they prepared to build their homes.
The court heard that the farm had in fact been allocated to the 35-member Phambililokuthula Cooperative under the government’s land reform programme.
The case was reported to the police at the end of last month leading the arrest of the nine villagers.
Labels: LAND REFORM, LAND RIGHTS
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