'Displaced in place': Agrarian displacements, replacements and resettlement among farm workers in Mazowe district

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 361-375

  Magaramombe, Godfrey ^a  

^a Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe   (Zimbabwe)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

AGRICULTURAL WORKER; LABOR MIGRATION; LAND REFORM; MIGRATION DETERMINANT; POPULATION MIGRATION; RESETTLEMENT POLICY;

MASHONALAND CENTRAL; MAZOWE; ZIMBABWE;

EID: 77954168701     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2010.485789     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. A. Hammar 'In the Name of Sovereignty: Displacement and State Making in Post-Independence Zimbabwe', Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 26, 4 (2008), pp. 417-34.
2. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) about 320,000 workers (1.5 to 2-million people including their families) worked and lived on the Large Scale Commercial Farms (LSCF). This represented about 25 per cent of Zimbabwe's total work force in formal employment (Harare, CSO, 1992). ISSN 0305-7070 print; 1465-3893 online/10/020361-15 q 2010 The Editorial Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2010.485789
3. More than one assessment indicated that 50 per cent to 70 per cent of the former farmworker population remained resident within the former large-scale commercial farming areas. See FCTZ, 'Assessment of the Impact of Land Reform Programme on Commercial Farm Worker Livelihoods' (Harare, FCTZ, 2002)
4. S. Moyo and W. Chambati, Review of the Agriculture Sector following the Implementation of the Land Reform; Impacts on Farm Workers and Farm Labour Processes (Harare, EU Technical Paper, No. 7, 2004). 4 Daily Mirror (Harare), 4 May 2006.
5. Moyo and Chambati, Review of the Agricultural Sector.
6. ZCDT, 'Report on Internally Displaced Farmworkers Survey, Kadoma, Chegutu and Kwekwe Districts' (Harare, ZCDT, 2003); FCTZ, 'Assessment of the Impact of Land Reform'.
7. Interview with the Chief Executive Officer of the National Employment Council Agricultural Industry in Zimbabwe, Harare, 26 May 2008.
8. D. Clarke, The Agricultural and Plantation Workers in Rhodesia (Gwelo, Mambo Press, 1977).
9. MPSL & SW, 'Land Reform: A Labour Perspective Farm Workers Survey Report', in Collaboration with International Organisation for Migration (Harare, MPSL & SW, 2001)
10. L.M. Sachikonye, 'The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers after Land Reform in Zimbabwe', Report prepared for FCTZ, Harare, 2003.
11. G. Magaramombe, 'Housing Sanitation and Farm Worker Settlements', in D. Amonor-Wilks (ed.), Zimbabwe's Farmworkers: Policy Dimensions (Lusaka, Panos, 2001), pp. 115-36.
12. Critics of the Act argued that it was a deliberate attempt by ZANU-PF to disenfranchise a large section of the Zimbabwean population in urban and commercial farming areas who had voted 'No' in the Constitutional referendum of 2000.
13. Moyo and Chambati, Review of the Agricultural Sector.
14. However, in practice, many people with SADC parentage continued to be denied citizenship without first renouncing their putative foreign citizenship.
15. Moyo and Chambati, Review of the Agricultural Sector.
16. A. Escobar, 'Displacement, Development and Modernity in the Colombian Pacific', International Social Journal, 55,175 (2003), pp. 157-67
17. W. Fernandes and E.G. Thukral, Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation: Issues for a National Debate (New Delhi, Indian Social Institute 1989)
18. S. Castles, 'Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration and Social Transformation', Sociology, 37, 1 (2003), pp. 13-34
19. P.K. Gellert and B.D. Lynch 'Mega-projects as Displacements', International Social Science Journal, 55, 1 (2003), pp. 15-25
20. A. Kamete 'Not Exactly like the Phoenix - But Rising All the Same: Recovery and Resistance Among Displaced Youths in Post Murambatsvina Harare', Paper presented at the AEGIS conference, Leiden 11-14 July 2007. 18 Gellert and Lynch, 'Mega-Projects as Displacements', p. 16
21. Kamet, 'Not Exactly like the Phoenix
22. S. Feldman, C. Geisler and L. Silberling, 'Moving Targets: Displacement, Impoverishment and Development', International Social Science Journal, 55, 175 (2003), pp. 7-13.
23. W.L. Partridge, 'Involuntary Resettlement in Development Projects', Journal of Refugee Studies, 2, 3 (1989), pp. 373-84,
24. Kamete 'Not Exactly Like the Phoenix'.
25. Feldman et al., 'Moving Targets', p. 9
26. Kamete, 'Not Exactly Like the Phoenix'. In structural terms this applies to a large proportion of former urban workers in the formal sector of Zimbabwe as well as farmworkers in the large-scale commercial farms.
27. Ibid., p. 9.
28. Ibid., p. 10.
29. Parliament of Zimbabwe, 'The Public Hearings on the Plight of Farm Workers', Report by the Portfolio Committee on Lands, Land Reform Resettlement and Agriculture and Portfolio Committee on Public Service Labour and Social Welfare, 2007.
30. There have also been allegations that some workers are still on the payroll of the former commercial farmers who hope that one day they will come back to their farms.
31. Sachikonye, 'The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers; Justice for Agriculture and the General Agriculture and Plantations Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), Destruction of Zimbabwe's Backbone Industry in Pursuit of Political Power, (Harare, JFA and GAPWUZ, 2008).
32. Moyo and Chambati, Review of the Agricultural Sector.
33. The General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ) is the oldest and most active of the farm worker unions and at its height in the late 1990s it had a paid-up membership of 65,000. Recently the union has been seriously weakened by loss of membership. As a member of the National Constitutional Assembly which campaigned for the 'No' vote in the 2000 constitutional referendum GAPWUZ was generally viewed with suspicion by ZANU-PF as it is considered as being allied to the opposition.
34. SCF, 'Report on Commercial and Resettled Farms Pilot Survey, Seke District' (Harare, SCF (UK), 2002)
35. 'Assessment of the Impact of Land Reform Programme on Commercial Farm Worker Livelihoods' (Harare, FCTZ, 2002)
36. GoZ, 'Report of the Presidential Land Review Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr C.M.B. Utete [hereafter 'Utete Report'] (Government Printer, Harare, 2003)
37. 'Land Reform: A Labour Perspective Farm Workers Survey Report' (Harare, MPSL & SW, 2001)
38. Parliament of Zimbabwe, 'The Public Hearings on the Plight of Farm Workers'.
39. SCF, 'Report on Commercial and Resettled Farms'.
40. B. Rutherford, Working on the Margins: Black Workers, White Farmers in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe (London, Zed Press, 2001).
41. Section 16 B (2) of the Constitution introduced by constitution Amendment number 17 of 2005.
42. According to the Rural Land Occupiers Act (Protection from Eviction) (2006) it is illegal to be on rural land that has been acquired by government unless one has an 'offer letter', but this has been used exclusively to prosecute white farmers for remaining on acquired farms.
43. GoZ, Utete Report, p. 46.
44. The Daily Mirror (Zimbabwe), 3 May 2006, for example, noted that there was an upsurge of labour shortages among A2 farmers in all provinces with the worst hit being the three Mashonaland Provinces and Midlands. 38 The Daily Mirror (Zimbabwe), 3 May 2006.
45. The Herald (Zimbabwe), 24 March 2006.
46. The Daily Mirror (Zimbabwe), 4 May 2006.
47. The Herald (Zimbabwe), 13 February 2007.
48. Interview with Chief Executive Officer, Mazowe Rural District Council, 25 May 2008, Mazowe Council offices. 43 GoZ, Utete Report.
49. Sachikonye, 'The Situation of Commercial Farm Workers
50. E. Dengu, V. Bvudzijena and V. Chikaura, 'Livelihoods Options for Farmworkers in Mashonaland East and Central Provinces', Report prepared for the FCTZ, Harare, 2007.
51. FCTZ, 'Assessment of the Impact of Land Reform'; SCF, 'Report on Commercial and Resettled Farms'.
52. FCTZ 'Assessment of the Impact of Land Reform'; Utete Report; Moyo and Chambati, Review of the Agricultural Sector; Dengu et al. 'Livelihood Options for Farm Workers'.
53. In some parts of the country most workers are engaged in gold-panning and diamond-mining. There is also a lucrative trade in the sale of illicit beer.
54. In January 2009, inflation was estimated at 230 billion by the Central Statistics Office.
55. Sunday Mail, 'Weeds Choke Crops as Farm Workers Demand High Wages', 29 May 2006. 50 16/05/2008, Tagarika farm.
56. Mangava Tichaona, 16 May 2008, Tagarika farm. 52 Mangava Tichaona Tagarika farm, 16 May 2008. 53 Angelica Vare Tagarika farm, 16 May 2005.
57. On a number of occasions where ex-farmworkers have been evicted from the farm villages District Administrators have moved in swiftly to make sure that they are allowed to continue staying on the farm.