implementation; a technical committee short-lists and evaluates applications. This structure is duplicated at
district level, where committees are chaired by the district administrator (DA). Representatives of the rural district
councils (RDCs), traditional leaders, and the War Veterans Association are all members of these committees.36
Zanu-PF Party chairmen are also represented from local to national level. Farm owners can appeal to the
Provincial Land Identification Committees if they believe that official criteria are not being followed, and
negotiate modifications to the acquisition process.
A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) technical report on the fast track program noted in
January 2002 noted that the program is “affected by cumbersome consultations and decision-making processes
involving numerous district, provincial and central government actors…. Problems of weak capacity and poor
coordination have led to numerous errors in processing the acquisition of properties.”37 Among the farms listed
for resettlement have been properties totally unsuitable for the purpose, including land flooded under dams, land
already resettled, or land currently used for industrial purposes. The team commented that even after recent
amendments to the law, the land acquisition process was “complex, cumbersome and tedious to execute,” and that
the team “is not aware of any other country in the region where the procedure for compulsory acquisition of land
is so elaborate.”38
There are two models for resettlement under the fast track program: model A1, “the decongestion model for
the generality of landless people with a villagized and a self-contained variant,” to benefit 160,000 beneficiaries
from among the poor; and model A2, aimed at creating a cadre of 51,000 small- to medium-scale black
indigenous commercial farmers.39 Twenty percent of all resettlement plots under the model A1 pattern are
officially reserved for war veterans, repeating a commitment made by the government since the early 1990s.40 In
order to request land from the fast track program applicants must fill in an application form. This form is available
either from the official structures—a district administrator, RDC councilor, or civil servant—or, in practice, from
the commander of the war veterans militia leading the occupation of the relevant farm.
36
Land Reform and Resettlement Programme: Revised Phase II, paragraph 3.3.6.
UNDP Interim Mission Report, January 2002, p.11.
38
UNDP Interim Mission Report, January 2002, p.28.
39
In early 2002, the government began publishing in the state media the names of those who would be granted significant
properties under the “A2” resettlement scheme aimed at creating a cadre of black commercial farmers. According to press
reports, among the named beneficiaries were senior police officers and other security force personnel, civil servants,
journalists with the state-owned Herald newspaper, and prominent Zanu-PF supporters. However, many of the allocated
properties were allegedly in fact already occupied by Zanu-PF militia members or other settlers, meaning that the proposed
new owners could not move onto the land. “Would be farmers yet to see new plots,” Financial Gazette (Harare), January
17, 2002.
40
Land Reform and Resettlement Programme: Revised Phase II, paragraph 3.2.1.3.
37
Human Rights Watch
12
March 2002, Vol. 14, No. 1 (A)
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