7 constitution, and the controversial land clause inserted after the consultation process had been completed, land invasions began in earnest. The Government embarked on a "Fast Track" implementation of the programme, taking the remaining 6 million hectare. In May 2002, the Government decided that about 2,900 commercial farmers should cease all farming activities and leave their farms within three months. A short digression about the land statistics is appropriate here. In 1975, as indicated earlier, 37.25%, or 14.5 million hectares of the total land mass of Zimbabwe [39 million hectares] was in the hands of white farmers. In the early 1980s, 3.8 million hectares of this 37% was made available for purchase by the Zimbabwe government on a willing seller/buyer basis. These were mostly vacant farms owned by white farmers or absent owners who had left during the 1970s. By the mid 1990’s, only 28% of Zimbabwe’s total land mass, or 10.9 million hectares, were in the hands of commercial and/or white farmers. By 2000, only 22% or 8.58 million hectares were in the hands of commercial farmers, and, of these, only 18% or 7 million hectares was whiteowned: 3.5%, or 1.4 million hectares, of the commercial farmland was already under free-hold title ownership of black commercial farmers. So it is apparent that substantial re-distribution had already taken place by 2000: more than half of the commercial farm land in white hands in 1980 had been placed in black hands by 2000. Here it is also worth commenting that the productivity and earning of this remaining 50% was considerable and significant not only in the economy of Zimbabwe, but also the region. Considering that 80% of white commercial farmers on the land in 2000 had purchased their farms since Independence in 1980, almost all with letters from the government “of no present interest” (whereby the State had first refusal on all the commercial farm land on the market), it is apparent that a substantial amount of land, over and above what was acquired, was readily available for equitable distribution over the 20 years under review. However, as indicated above, the Zimbabwe government stated the need for more land in 2000, in order to resettle 352,000 families in two different schemes. It should be noted here that the actual re-settlement was markedly lower than the anticipated need according to the Zimbabwe government. As the Utete Commission commented in 2003: The Committee established that nationally a total of 2 652 farms with a combined hectarage of 4 231 080 had been allocated to 127 192 households under the A1 resettlement model as of 31st July 2003. The take up rate by beneficiaries was 97%. As for the A2 resettlement model, the corresponding figures were 1 672 farms amounting to 2 198 814 hectares for 7 260 applicant A Preliminary Report on Human Rights Violations on Commercial Farms, 2000 to 2005.