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

implementation of investment programmes by those willing to do
so. Inconsistent and conflicting statements pertaining to the
industrial indigenisation programme literally leave the potential
investors in the wilderness. However despite all these fears, which
in the long run can be overcome by a well strategised offensive to
explain the programme to the potential investors, the real fear is
that the land reform programme did not benefit some of those in
real need of land and the current industrial indigenisation drive
will not benefit the most deserving sections of Zimbabwean
society.
Land reform
The guiding legislation in the fast track land reform programme
was the Land Acquisition Act of 1992 and Constitutional
Amendment Number 16 of 2000 which both gave Government the
power to compulsorily acquire land for the purpose of
redistribution, with the latter putting the responsibility for
compensating white farmers for land acquired by government on
the British government. During the fast track land reform
programme, the following categories of land were targeted for
acquisition:
Derelict and under-utilised land
Land under multiple ownership
Foreign owned land
Land contiguous to communal areas.
While the criteria for the compulsory acquisition of land outlined
above was the most convenient given the circumstances, it is
bullet point number four that disadvantaged most communities
who live far away from commercial farming areas from getting the
land during that phase. Whether the land was derelict and
underutilised, or it was under multiple ownership or it was
foreign owned, it is the communal areas surrounding those
commercial farming sites that mostly benefited at the expense of
those communities far removed from them. The case of Buhera
district in Manicaland Province is the most telling. For a district
stretching from the borders of Mashonaland East in Chikomba
District to Birchenough Bridge, and without a single farm in its
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