A senior Zimbabwean minister has admitted that the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms has failed to benefit large numbers of poor black farmers, many of whom have failed to take up the land that was grabbed.
Special Affairs Minister John Nkomo, chairman of the ruling Zanu-PF, said that in some areas fewer than half of the black farmers who were allotted land had started farming it.
Commercial agriculture has collapsed following President Robert Mugabe's land redistribution policy, leaving about 5 million people needing food aid because of shortages.
"In some cases, the percentage of people who took up the farms that they were allocated has not been encouraging," Nkomo said in a BBC interview at the weekend. "In some cases," he added, "only 40 percent of people who were allocated land have taken it up."
The minister blamed lack of finance, saying that the farmers who wanted to take the land had difficulties obtaining bank loans, but such difficulties had been foreseen by the Mugabe regime's critics.
The poor peasant farmers who were meant to benefit from land seizures did not have the money to buy seed, fertilizer or hoes, let alone redevelop the farmland to make it more productive.
And without the title deeds, which are still held by their white owners, black farmers cannot obtain bank loans.
Critics say further problems were caused by members of the Zanu-PF elite -- who often had no interest or ability in farming -- seizing land and then leaving it idle. Mugabe's wife, Grace, is among those who have seized prime land.
Rensen Gasela, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's shadow minister for land, said: "We knew all along that the land reform was very chaotic, and we said so.
"They gave land to people who are not farmers, who are soldiers and police and civil servants. These people are working in towns.
"They are not interested in the land. They got the land for speculation purposes, so that they can sell it later.
"Even Mugabe has admitted that there were problems, but they have always glossed over the problems or indicated that they were teething troubles. If John Nkomo has said this, then this is the first time there has been such a frank admission."
The failure to make use of Zimbabwe's farmland could well worsen food shortages. A spokesman for Justice for Agriculture, a white farmers' pressure group, said, "We've flown around the country and seen there's nothing being grown. The maize crop is down, the wheat is down.
The minister's embarrassing admission comes after Mugabe's government announced on New Year's Eve that it had recovered half a million acres of farmland from Zanu-PF loyalists who had seized two or more white-owned farms.
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