Historical legacies continue to impact the welfare and development of the people of Zimbabwe, a small southern African country of 11 million nestled between Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zambia. A white minority government ran the country, as Rhodesia, from the time of colonization by the British over 100 years ago until 1980. The colonizers gained control of most of the fertile farmlands from the indigenous tribal people, marginalized them on less fertile tracts of land and developed towns, roads, railways, farms and industries using a cheap black labor force. An apartheid system of government was established that relegated black people to lower socio-economic status without voting rights, land tenure or full access to public and private facilities and establishments utilized by the white colonizers.
Formal black resistance began in the 1920's, culminating in a bloody civil war against the white-run Rhodesian government in the 1970's. Together with increasing international pressure and economic sanctions, this precipitated a British-brokered transition to majority black rule, democratic elections and the formation of Zimbabwe with a majority black parliament. Despite the bitterness of the long independence struggle, the new black leaders, led by Robert Mugabe of the Zimbabwe African National Union party (ZANU), agreed to avoid excessive recrimination and the immediate re-distribution of white owned lands, business and other assets to promote national peace and unity and abate the flight of expertise through the emigration of trained white professionals.
With an established strong infrastructure and resilient economy that set it apart from most of its neighbors, for many years Zimbabwe enjoyed a reputation as a peaceful and successful example of racial integration, productivity and serious-mindedness, and a role model of post-independence democracy and self-sufficiency. However, in the early 1980s, in a bid to consolidate power and eliminate internal opposition factions, the army carried out brutal and indiscriminate "weeding out" exercises in southern Zimbabwe, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians. The same ZANU-dominated government has been in power since 1980, re-elected four times. Long-term power has bred corruption and the government has mismanaged the country's affairs with lack of accountability. The first three elections were political landslides, reflecting the enormous popularity of ZANU in rural areas, where the majority of the population still lives under subsistence farming with minimal education and access to independent opinion. The last election, in 2000, was closely contested by the increasingly popular opposition party Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), signaling widespread dissatisfaction with the ZANU government by people who are remarkably peaceful and tolerant. The welfare of most Zimbabweans has slipped below minimal levels as the ability of the government to provide adequate health, education and social services is jeopardized by its greater focus on difficult-to-justify endeavors, like a huge long-term financial and military commitment to the civil war in the Congo and hefty rewards for high level government officials. Ordinary people are increasingly left to fend for themselves.
The run-up to the elections was marred by violence against people in farming areas, usually perpetrated on behalf of the government. Central to this unrest and an issue of major political and economic import, is the question of land re-distribution. The majority of the highly fertile land in Zimbabwe is still owned by a minority community of white farmers. The vast majority of black people live in densely populated and communally-utilized land of lower productivity that is heavily over-grazed and eroded. They have neither land tenure nor access to high-level lending facilities , so they are unable to develop large scale, more productive agriculture to improve their lots. Although an issue of lengthy debate since the 1980s, the government has made limited efforts to address the land ownership imbalance left by nearly a century of colonial rule. Last year, however, it turned land re-distribution into a hot political issue in order to bolster its low popularity in the elections. Intimidation of white farmers and their black staff by "war veterans" demanding land without compensation was widespread and openly encouraged by the government. Numerous farms were forcibly taken over and hundreds of residents were beaten and threatened, and several were killed. The police failed to react to many of these crimes. Since the elections, the violence has receded but farm occupations continue and the government is going ahead with forced acquisition of farms. Inarguably, land re-distribution is required to redress serious historical imbalances. However, the uncertain and heavy-handed manner in which it is being conducted reduces confidence in the rule of law in the country. The economy of Zimbabwe is heavily dependent on agriculture and this industry requires careful handling to prevent investor fear and economic crisis. Re-distribution must not seriously jeopardize the welfare of the people and the benefits must be experienced by those who are most disadvantaged by the current system.
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