ZIMBABWE: ECONOMY

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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English/Nat As Zimbabweans come to terms with the implications of last weekend's elections the President, Robert Mugabe, has vowed to press ahead with his plans to re-allocate white owned farms. Many of the farms are already occupied by Mugabe's supporters but their former owners are worried that their former land is being neglected. Representatives of the white farmers say that next year's essential tobacco crop needs to be planted soon or the occupiers risk further destabilisation of Zimbabwe's already faltering economy. Tobacco sales form the backbone of the nation's trade and with international aid to the southern African country drying up, income from the crop is taking on even greater significance. It's here in the trading floor of Harare's tobacco exchange that the material effects of the political strife are being felt first. The price fetched by the crop is a sign of the economic health of the country. And with much of the ruling Zanu P-F party's manifesto for re-election being based on land reform rather than economic reform, analysts are worried that Zimbabwe will become a country of widespread land ownership, but little real economic power. Farmers who have been thrown off their land by Mugabe's supporters and self styled 'war veterans' are worried that the occupiers are not husbanding the land correctly. They fear that if next year's crops are not planted soon they could fail, plunging the country into even more financial turmoil. And if the crops fail the land's new owners will be unable to keep up payments on loans tied to the land. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Well, it's going to be very difficult for them because they've got bank loans to meet. I know that the irrigated seed sales have gone down something like 30 percent so people are obviously missing the boat. The season - the new season - has already started with planting seed beds and that sort of thing. So I think they're going to be in big trouble, financially." SUPER CAPTION: Terry Chamney, Tobacco Farmer The preparations for the crop should have begun a month ago. But this was exactly the time when many of the dispossessed farmers were turned off their land. They had no chance to irrigate the soil and plant the seeds in preparation for the new season. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Well the major problems that growers now face is the inability in some instances to plant seed beds. Seed beds for the irrigated crop go in on the first of June and in some instances the war veterans prevented them from planting seed beds." SUPER CAPTION: Pat Devenish, Managing Director of Tobacco Sales Floor Mugabe's land reform plans have already led to widespread international condemnation. The white owned farms were a lucrative source of employment for many poor black country-dwellers. Unemployment runs at around 40 percent and a stable job market is arguably more important to most Zimbabweans than owning their own land. Yet with Mugabe's plans set to continue apace some feel that stability is being neglected and that a more measured approach to the problem of land rights is what is needed. SOUNDBITE: (English) "What we need to see is - there is no question on the land - that the land has got to be redistributed, it's how it's done. You know a lot of people are now saying land is the mediation. What's the mediation - the economy. Let's sort out the economy first and then the land problem will be solved." SUPER CAPTION: Emmanuel Munyukwi, Chief Executive of Zimbabwe Stock Exchange The next few weeks will be crucial to the country's short term future. But if the envisaged problems materialise as feared then the effects of attempts at land reform could reverberate long into the future. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/7c7e359d9202b498d7853cb80c891fcb Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork