Food Imports, Hunger and State Making in Zimbabwe, 2000–2009

2019 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-144
Author(s):  
Tapiwa Madimu
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
National Union ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
Food Shortages ◽  
Imported Food ◽  
Maize Meal ◽  
Food Imports

This article uses hunger as a lens to explore how the process of state making in Zimbabwe between 2000 and 2009 negatively affected the country’s food security. Using Eriksen’s concept of state making, the study demonstrates how the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) ruling regime concentrated more on accumulation and power retention at a time when government was expected to address the serious food shortages that the country was facing. The development of a different kind of state that had repressive and accumulation tendencies was signified in 2000 by the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) which was intended to appease the regime’s various constituencies. Taken together with other populist measures, particularly price freezes, the policies destroyed the country’s capacity to produce and manufacture food and pushed citizens to rely almost entirely on food imports (mainly from South Africa). The paper thus contributes to the literature on the Zimbabwean crisis by offering a different dimension, not only on the process of state making and how it caused hunger, but also on the specifics of how ordinary citizens were literally starving except those who could afford to buy imported food (particularly maize meal) from South Africa.

LAND REFORM IN SOUTH AFRICA: OBSTINATE SPACIAL DISTORTIONS

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-31
Author(s):  
Manala Shadrack Maake
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Economic Transformation ◽  
Land Claims ◽  
Tenure Reform ◽  
Land Redistribution ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
Theoretical Paper

This theoretical paper seeks to make an empirical contribution to the Land Reform discourses. The paper argues that the pace of land redistribution in South Africa is undeniably slow and limits livelihood choices of relatively most intended beneficiaries of land reform programme. The primacy and success of the programme within rural development ought to measured and assessed through ways in which the land reform programmes conforms to and improve the livelihoods, ambitions and goals of the intended beneficiaries without compromising agricultural production and the economy. In addition, paper highlights the slow pace of land reform programme and its implications on socio-economic transformation of South Africa. Subsequently, the paper concludes through demonstrating the need for a radical approach towards land reform without disrupting agricultural production and further to secure support and coordination of spheres of government. The democratic government in South Africa inherited a country which characterized by extreme racial imbalances epitomized through social relations of land and spatial distortions. Non-white South Africans are still feeling the effects of colonial and apartheid legal enactments which sought to segregate ownership of resources on the basis of race in particular. Thus, successive democratic governments have the specific mandate to re-design and improve land reform policies which are targeted to reverse colonially fueled spatial distortions. South Africa’s overall Land Reform programme consists of three key elements and namely are; land redistribution, tenure reform and land restitution. Concomitantly, spatial proponents and researchers have denounced and embraced land reform ideology and its status quo in South Africa. The criticisms overlapped towards both beneficiaries and state due to factors like poor post-settlement support, lack of skills, lack of capital, infighting over land claims and land management.

Socio-Economic Characterisation of Resettled Smallholder Farmers in Rural Zimbabwe

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110588
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Ndhlovu
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Exploratory Research ◽  
Reform Programme ◽  
Small Holder Farmers ◽  
Small Holder ◽  
Blind Spots

The socio-economic characterisation of resettled small-holder farmers under the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in Zimbabwe has blind spots in relation to the emergent transformative social policy features such as ‘social cohesion’, ‘cooperation’, ‘protection’ and ‘accumulation’ which are equally important among land beneficiaries. Using the Sangwe farm, this article departs from the conventional use of the political economy, sustainable livelihoods, human rights-based and neo-patrimonial approaches to experiment with the transformative social policy approach. Using both quantitative and qualitative data in an exploratory research design, the article shows that viewed from the transformative social policy approach, the FTLRP was neither a resounding success nor a complete disaster. The programme actually produced mixed results. The article thus, recommends the use of in-depth, ideologically free and neutral approaches in its analysis so as to reveal its detailed outcomes. Additional studies in which existing land reform policies can be considered in the collective efforts of improving the transformative agenda of the FTLRP across the country are needed.

Housing in the aftermath of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme in Zimbabwe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lovemore Chipungu ◽  
Hangwelani Hope Magidimisha
Keyword(s):  
Land Reform ◽  
Fast Track ◽  
Reform Programme
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