The Odzi area in Mutare North Constituency used to have more than 30 productive commercial farms owned by whites. The food crops grown on the farms were for local consumption, while tobacco was mainly for export.
“It is sad to note that things have turned out like this. This area used to be the breadbasket of the whole Southern African region,” said Moses Dube (Not his real name), a Manicaland Province Coordinator of a local NGO that assists orphans and vulnerable children in farming communities.
Out of the 30 productive farms there are only five that are still growing commercially.
When President Robert Mugabe embarked on the infamous and chaotic land reform programme in 2000, Zanu (PF) officials and supporters benefited from the immensely disputed initiative.
In the Odzi area Zanu (PF) beneficiaries include CIO boss Happitone Bonyongwa, Michael Nyambuya, the former Manicaland Governor and Minister of Power and Energy Development, Mike Madiro, Zanu (PF) provincial chairman, Fungai Mbetsa, Manicaland Provincial Administrator, the late Zanu (PF) Member of Parliament for the area, Charles Pemhenai, and Zanu (PF) official, Robert Gumbo, among others.
Many farm workers lost their jobs and those who managed to remain on the farms now survive on piece-work and illegal diamond panning at the nearby Marange diamond fields.
Poor living standards
In most of the farms that were invaded by the Zanu (PF) war veterans, the living standards have plummeted and basic social services like farm schools and clinics no longer exist.
Dube said: “Life is very difficult in these farm communities. HIV is making the lives of people, including children, difficult at these farms as there are no any proper health facilities.”
At Grange Farm, previously owned by Mutare Mayor Brian James, the farm was divided into small portions where war veterans own small plots of maize and vegetables.
Michael Muza (Not real name) a war veteran and survivor of the August 1976 attack, went to Tanzania at Nechingwenya Training Camp for basic military training, but today is full of regrets.
“Look at me, I am a true war veteran. I was trained by Gideon Lifa in Tanzania and fought the war with other popular comrades like Hubert Mudehwe and Basil Nyabadza. But today I am dying of ill health on this farm, where is Zanu (PF) to assist us?”
Lifa was a Major General whose Chimurenga name was Rodello Tichavakunda. He died in Harare after a long illness on 26 June 2007 and he was accorded national hero status and buried at the National Heroes Acre.
Like many other resettled farmers in the area Muza cannot afford to supplement the seed and fertiliser to cultivate the land, as those that are being supplied by Zanu (PF) through the Input Supply Scheme are inadequate.
Muza, who is HIV positive, also lacks the strength to carry water from the river about 1.5km away. He has been getting free anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) at a nearby clinic in Odzi for the past two years but he often struggles to find food to take with them.
“Thing are not well here. There are no any health facilities to talk about and many people are suffering as they are failing to have access to proper medication. The clinic that was near the farm no longer exists and people have to walk long distances to the nearest clinic in Odzi,” said Muza.
Children affected
There are also children in the area who are in Muza’s predicament. Dube said his NGO has been receiving assistance from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) which supports vulnerable children with medical fees, school fees, home visits by trained community members and skills training for older children. However, violence in these farms has made the NGOs and donors reluctant to venture into resettled farms with much need food aid and other community based support.
“We have not been able to raise funding to provide food to our home-based care patients and it is a problem for many of them to take medication when they do not have a balanced diet,” said Tendai Mwanjiri, director of The Zimbabwe Rural Projects Centre, a local NGO.
The Ministry of Health and Child Welfare has been running a national Farm Health Programme (FHP) where it trained community members to provide basic health services, but it stopped when war veterans and Mugabe cronies grabbed land under the infamous land reform programme leading to the closure of most clinics in these farming areas.
Henry Madzorera (MDC-T) the Minister of Health and Child Welfare said:
“The FHP is one of those services that must come back to life, especially with everything that happened during the land reform programme. In the short term we are planning to use mobile clinics and village health workers to provide farm communities with basic health services and health education. But eventually we should have a clinic within five kilometres radius in every settlement.”
While Zanu (PF) is trying to justify and defending its land reform programme, it is failing to address the health crisis on these farms.
Post published in: News