Beneficiaries are actors too.pdf - Southern Institute of Peace ...

From the table above, '…a total of 2 652 farms, 4 231 080
hectares in extent, were allocated to A1 model while a total of
1672 farms, 2 198 814 hectares in extent were allocated to
model A2…A total of 127 192 households were settled under
model A1 while a total of 7260 beneficiaries were settled under
model A2' (Utete, 2003). Of note in the statistics shown above
is the significant number of beneficiaries under the A1 model
which is the category for small holder farmers in the fast track
land reform programme. This could have had an effect of
decongesting some of the communal areas in the country from
which the beneficiaries moved. However the problem is that
most of the beneficiaries of the land reform maintain dual
ownership of both their communal homes and their new farm
plots. Hence no meaningful decongestion can occur in such a
scenario. Requisite legal provisions should be implemented to
do away with dual ownership of land, cancel out multiple
ownership practices and support the new farmers, especially
those in small scale operations.
The Current Push for Empowerment
The nationalist undercurrents in the land reform programme
have continued to push for the advancement of the economic
empowerment agenda in the current period under the industrial
indigenisation drive. While nationalism seems to be out of touch
with the current wave of globalisation, it is a refuge for countries
suffering from economic injustice as a result of restrictions
imposed by those championing globalisation. Nationalist feelings
mostly hatched during the liberation struggle and the period
preceding it (from the Unilateral Declaration of Independence
going backwards) have continued to contribute significantly to
the government's policy thrust. The current industrial
indigenisation drive is also driven by very deep-seated feelings of
economic nationalism which do not seek to put the economy in
the hands of government but under the control of a local black
bourgeoisie class that will supposedly keep its profits in the
country for the benefit of other sectors. This nationalist element
has gone beyond simply bringing political independence but has
gone further to fulfil Nkrumah's vision of a politically and
economically liberated Africa (Nkrumah, 1965). According to the
current indigenisation guidelines, black Zimbabwean business
people should control a 51 percent stake and foreigners should
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