ZIMBABWE - Destruction of wildlife, the environment and sensitive eco-systems

THE INVADERS AND INVADED

On close examination it was my experience that this illegal takeover of conservancy land (which for the past 18 months, you must remember, has been officially declared exempt from the government's fast-track resettlement process), has largely not been for the benefit of the country's rural poor.

On Buffalo Range, the core ranch on the Chiredzi conservancy, the invasions are being carried out by prosperous sugar cane farmers, politicians, or businessmen from Chiredzi town. It is well known that the local MP, the District Administrator, members of the Central Intelligence Organisation, members of the police, doctors, teachers, sugar farmers and National Parks staff from Gonarezhou have acquired plots on the conservancy. Whilst we were on Chiredzi we heard news that two army personnel in full camouflage uniform came to check the snares being ambushed by the scouts. The scouts were too scared to arrest them. Two employees of the Veterinary Department have also been arrested for poaching on the Conservancy. The District Administrator, who is also the chairman of the District Land Committee in Chiredzi, has allocated himself prime land on the river just behind one of the lodges. The land has been burnt right to the garden of the lodge. The DA's secretary and the Messenger of the Court also have plots on the conservancy. The latter is exactly where the conservancy's resident wild dogs have one of their dens.

All these apparently poverty-stricken plot-holders employ people to work on 'their' land whilst they continue to work in the towns, or on their own farms elsewhere. Whilst there are plot-holders from outlying communal areas, there is nothing to suggest that the bulk of invasions on the conservancies are going to help any of the country's landless or poor communities.

I asked one of the invaders on Save who came from a communal area if this was good land for him. He replied 'No, there's not enough water and rainfall is very low'. He told me he was going to try and grow groundnuts. He seemed to want to know more from me than I from him - did I know if 'they' were going to sink boreholes for them? What about the water troughs, would they be filled? What about the animals, would they be 'quarantined' to stop them from eating the crops? He told me it took him 3 hours to walk to the nearest source of water. He wanted to grow maize but he knows he will need irrigation for that. Also he knows it won't be possible to fertilise this land without irrigation.

I spoke to Roger Whittal on the question of water. He told me, 'We're pumping water to one point for them but otherwise there's no water. We have a few dams, which have water now, but come a bad season and we won't have water. We've sunk something like 40 or 50 boreholes over the years here and we've never found water. It's granite country, they're not going to find water here.'

All along the road from this man's cleared land were women walking with jerry cans of water strapped to their backs or balanced on their heads. Alongside them small children carried their own small bottles filled with water. Is this really a solution to land hunger and poverty alleviation?

One of the managers on Chiredzi is Joshua Maengedze. Living amidst the worst affected area on the conservancy, he has dealt with stock theft, poaching and intimidation on a daily basis. 'This is a political issue. The land is going to the elite, not the poor. Most people here are settlers from Mkwasine Sugar Estate. One man, Mabika, is a prosperous owner of part of the sugar estate and he has taken two plots here. The others come here and clear the land and their plan is to kill everything, not to farm.'

Maengedze manages a portion of the conservancy that was bought in 1999 and passed through the Ministry of Lands to be granted a certificate of 'no present interest' by the government. A year later and there is suddenly a great deal of 'interest' as a vast number of the local Triangle Sugar Plantation employees, and Bikita communal villagers, were moved on. The gentleman Joshua referred to, Mr. Mabika, drove past us in his Mazda pick-up on the way to one of the conservancy's staff compounds where he proceeded to fill two large drums of water pumped from a borehole for the staff and adjacent safari lodge. When we arrived the water pressure was clearly very low and the water was trickling through, the pump unable to deal with the sudden increase in demand from the mass of squatters in the area. This is the only source of water for the squatters on this portion of the conservancy and whilst we watched, a group of over 20 lined up for their meagre share of the spoils. It is blatantly obvious the land on Chiredzi cannot support this influx, it is only a matter of time before all its fragile resources will be exhausted, and the people will have to move on, or starve.