15 However the government has indicated that it will undertake yet another audit of the land situation,29 which should be complete by the end of November 2006. Government has started issuing 99-year leases to these “new farmers”, 30 as well as making offers of compensation to the former owners, although most former farmers are rejecting the offer as derisory.31 Government policy makers are not consistent in their statements with regard to “land reform”. While Vice President Mujuru has said that the process of reallocating land is complete, over 100 fresh eviction notices have been served on farmers in 2006. The Minister of Land Reform responsible for the process, Didymus Mutasa32, has clearly stated that the admitted criterion for eviction is that the farmer is white (with no regard as to how the land was acquired in the first instance). This contradicts the elsewhere-declared policy that the criterion is that of “one person, one farm”. Mutasa has also stated that no white will be allowed to apply for a lease of land on which to farm33. While several of these fresh invasions have taken place shortly before harvesting and by government officials, they have not been accompanied by the level of violence characteristic of preceding years. Food and humanitarian assistance The government has continued to maintain a firm grip on food distribution to the many that rely on it for survival and other forms of aid34. A High Court Judgment delivered in October 2006 in a petition challenging election results, confirmed the use of food as a political weapon. Key institutions relating to food distribution are now headed by former military men and Mugabe loyalists. All NGOs require governmental permission to distribute food and the legislative structure in this regard remains unchanged35. However, governmental pronouncements on the issue of food security are contradictory. In February, 2006 the Deputy Minister of Agriculture admitted that crop yields would be half the government’s original projections due to lack of fertiliser, expertise and inability to undertake farming on a commercial scale by new farmers. 29 30 31 32 “Yet Another Land Audit” Financial Gazette November 15, 2006 It is necessary to place new farmers in quotation marks as many of those allocated land are not in fact farming the same, treating the farms as weekend resorts or farming on a part-time or limited basis. “Zimbabwe to compensate dispossessed farmers “Mail and Guardian 16 November 2006; “White farmers shun compensation exercise’ Zim Online 17 November 2006; “Farmers' group calls Zimbabwe's compensation offer for seized land a sham” International Herald Tribune 16 November 2006 Mutasa is also the Minister for State Security. 33 See “No Land For Whites Mutasa Declares” Financial Gazette 126/10/06-01/11/06 34 “ZANU- PF Politicises Aid Distribution” Independent Zimbabwe 29/09/2006 35 For the details on this which are largely unchanged see The Politics of Food Assistance in Zimbabwe Human Rights Watch briefing paper 2004 Zimbabwe’s Failure to meet the Benchmarks in the Contonou Agreement