Land reform is not ill-conceived

I will never agree that land reform is ill-conceived. Yes it may have been mis-managed by Zanu-PF but land reform remains a necessity, not only in here but in our neighbour South Africa as well. Without equitable distribution of resources, our countries will be saddled with social imbalances that will be a source of conflict for generations to come.

Social and wealth distribution imbalances did not start being sources of conflict only in Africa but since time immemorial. You may be aware of conflicts precipitated by social imbalances such as the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution.

Mr Ncube, you definitely are not going to deny that the current land distribution imbalances were created by unjustifiable and virulently racist and discriminatory policies of colonial governments in their various forms. It is ill-conceived to call land reform ill-conceived.

I believe you may also have witnessed what happened to the fortunes of farmers who were marketing their produce around Boka auction floors. I am sure you will agree with me that they became the centre of economic activity. Is that a bad thing?

The improved economy of farmers at household level will eventually lead to an improved national economy. We have the problem that many people and indeed the government are trying to force the agricultural economy to follow the same patterns as when we had highly centralized and few commercial farmers. The simple logic that due to change in demographic patterns, agricultural economic patterns will of necessity change is lost to most.

The mere change, and disruption associate with the it, of agricultural economic patterns is interpreted as abject failure of land reform by some. In addition, the disruption caused by excessive government control of agricultural marketing (price controls, marketing restrictions, monetary mismanagement) is completely ignored as everything is attributed to the mere act of land reform.

Surely the improvement in agricultural fortunes that was witnessed this year would not have been there of white ownership land was the only and necessary ingredient for agricultural success. The only thing that has changed is that excessive government control has been removed.

Secondly while economic and monetary mismanagement, particularly during the Gideon Gono era, may have considerably lowered our standard of living over the past decade, I believe you are being unnecessarily negative by calling life in Zimbabwe "pathetic existence" as if we have the worst conditions in the world.

What would you call life in Somalia, Darfur, Iraqi, Afghanistan, DRC and even Kyrgyzstan. Having had the opportunity to travel throughout the region, our standard of life is higher than in nearly all neighbouring countries. By standard of living I mean standard of housing, access to sanitation, access to education facilities and having reasonable infrastructure such as roads and clinic buildings.

For example the minimum standard of housing most Zimbabweans enjoy (a round ‘kitchen’ hut with an asbestos roofed 'bedroom' by the side), is higher than the standard of housing the most South African blacks have (a tin shack). What we often perceive as a lowering of living standards is merely a reduction of access to disposable cash.

I believe responsible journalism should encourage Zimbabweans to build on what they have rather than dupe them into believing that they have the shortest end of the stick. Such negativism encourages Zimbabweans to think life is much better elsewhere. As you may be aware many of them then cross our borders into countries like South Africa were many face much worse living conditions than they would have faced at home. They also place a strain on the service delivery in those countries resulting in xenophobia.

I have never supported Zanu-PF having build my political consciousness during the ZUM days. However I will never bad-mouth Zimbabwe in order to spite Robert Mugabe as you seem to be doing.