MANICALAND PROVINCE ABSTRACT FOR THE CIVIL SOCIETY AND CHURCHES JOINT INDABA

Presented by PYD Director Claris Madhuku at the Civil Society and Churches Joint Forum on 15 October 2018

Manicaland remains one of the most influential provinces in Zimbabwe, contributing immensely to the socio-political and economic development that has over the years anchored Zimbabwe to become attractive in the geo-politics of the region and the world. The province largely covers the eastern highlands and the south eastern plateau of Zimbabwe. According to the 2012 population census, the province has a population of approximately 1.8 million people. Politically, ZANU PF has dominated the province and recently won 19 out of the 26 parliamentary seats that were contested in the just ended 30 July 2018 Harmonised Elections. The MDC Alliance won the remaining 7 seats. 

The Indaba entitled ‘Reclaiming the peoples struggles beyond the political curtains: setting the peoples agenda”, is an opportune moment for Manicaland province to interrogate the commitment by the current government to fulfil the demands and obligations of a social contract between the people (citizens) and their government. Despite the popularisation of the slogan to indicate that Zimbabwe is open for business, the country continues to experience uncertainty and restlessness that has led to an increase in the gap between the poor and the rich due to the rise in the cost of living. The people of Manicaland are equally concerned with the way central government is unfairly distributing resources due to open and brazen corruption that has become endemic. We take note as a province that lack of transparency and accountability has over shadowed government efforts to fulfil the demands of the social contract entered on 30 July 2018 therefore exposing vulnerable citizens to insecurities being propagated by a predatory state.

Manicaland province prides itself in contributing more than 70% of Zimbabwe’s diamond quantum coming from Marange, Chiadzwa and Chimanimani. The Province supplies the best grade of bananas, peaches, mangoes, litchi, coffee, tea and avocado. 

Despite Manicaland being the largest producer of cash fruits,  the province does not have local industries to refine such fruits into other finished products.  Instead such industries are found elsewhere in the country thus depriving the province of employment opportunities.

The province has been pivotal in supporting agriculture and therefore contributed in making agriculture the main stay of Zimbabwe’s economy.

Despite all these contributions to the economy, in addition to having contributed the largest number of guerrillas (freedom fighters) to the liberation struggle that gave us independence from the colonial masters, the province still lags behind development wise. The province is encouraged by the utterances from the President E.D Mnangagwa  who has promised to prioritize devolution and decentralisation in the running of national affairs. The Harare-centric governance model that dominated the Mugabe reign has not helped the country to develop its infrastructure. Manicaland province is still to benefit from its natural resources like diamond from Marange and Chiadzwa and the sugarcane project in Chisumbanje among other various investment projects being implemented in joint venture with the government of Zimbabwe

The Indaba is therefore an opportunity for delegates drawn from all the provinces of Zimbabwe to question their elected leaders and government to account. The platform will also mobilise and empower citizens at the grassroots level to actively participate in the formulation and implementation of policies affecting their day to day livelihood. The theme for the Indaba is befitting as it seeks to remind not only the government of its obligations, but also the people who must be at the centre. 

Manicaland province hopes to reiterate that the elections are over and Zimbabweans must be wiser and refuse to be the subject of abuse by politicians who have proven to be selfish and partisan without working for the national agenda.

Thank You

Greediness Haunts Chipinge Villagers

The Traditional Leaders Act (20:17) outlines the critical role traditional leaders play in the governance of communal areas in presiding over the administrative needs of the communities. In this regard, their work is configured around land tenure which is a relationship among people with respect to land. However, land tenure is multi – dimensional as it bring into focus social, economic, institutional and political aspects that determines community cohesion or chaos. In Matikwa, Mahachi, Vheneka, Machona Chisumbanje and Bitcon Villages, there is land-related conflict and dispossession that is gradually threatening security and stability. Traditional leaders in the mentioned communities are embroiled in  land disputes with the local people as they are parcelling out land as residential stands to new arrivals in the communities charging exorbitant prices. This exercise is viewed by the local people as poorly conducted with ambiguities open to exploitation and loss of land.

Local families are in disagreement with the manner in which the traditional leaders are allocating land for habitation and the money they charge for the exercise. This is done in a context-insensitive way and this has provoked tension and suspicion among local people. At Checheche growth point, people are paying between $2000 and $5000 for a 300 square metre residential stand, and the village heads in the aforementioned villages are now charging between $500 and $1500 per residential stand from a standard price of between $20 and $50. This has caused additional pressures to land resources, causing disputes to flare up as the allocation is in disregard to land traditionally reserved for grazing purposes. The increase in communal land value is surely a match stick that can trigger conflict. The village heads in the affected villages are basically profiteering from such unfair exercise.

Local people have had their traditional land demarcated for apportionment. This has resulted in the creation of artificial stands for resale by the traditional leaders. At the same time, local villagers are worried by the disrespect to the environment and people’s security. The stands are being created very close to the road and also along water streams. This has weakened community specific informal land arrangements and conflict resolution mechanism as the exercise is bound to be a breeding ground for communal conflict. 

“The communal land has been slowly turned to unaffordable levels to most poor families, and this problem is leaving a deep wound on our next generation. People will soon lose their land as there is no security of tenure and greedy traditional leaders are taking advantage of the situation” Quelani Sithole said. “It is a destabilizing exercise in Chipinge that is putting families into a cycle of poverty and emotional turmoil, affecting current and future prospects for community stability” she continues.

Effort Manono of Vemuganga Community Radio was quoted as saying, “Strategies to tackle communal land allocation should focus on creating community cohesion and reducing the risk of land based conflicts. The people we currently have are a new crop of young village heads who strive on profiteering at the expense of customary rights to land.”

 PYD is urging traditional leaders to ensure security of tenure to local people in exercising their role because people with insecure tenure face the risk from competing claims as a result of arbitrary land allocation. Without security of tenure, local households are significantly impaired in their ability to secure sufficient food and to enjoy sustainable rural livelihoods. When asked for a comment, the PYD Director Mr Claris Madhuku admitted that the traditional leadership need to be given attention.

“PYD is interested in the capacitation of some of these accused young traditional leadership to understand their mandate in protecting settlement patterns that have always made the rural areas safe places

PYD Constructs a Viable Solution to the Land Dispute in Chisumbanje

Background and Introduction

The fuel crisis of 2006 – 2008 prompted the Zimbabwean government’s interest in biofuel production as an alternative to fossil fuel with Zimbabwe adopting a Brazilian national ethanol program but with little success. This led to the government through ARDA engaging Macdom Investments trading as Greenfuel, to establish an ethanol production project in Chisumbanje on a Build, Operate and Transfer arrangements (BOT) in 2008. Chisumbanje was a preferred location for the ethanol project due to its favourable biophysical resources. Green Fuel subsequently began working on the project in 2009, with the sugar cane being grown on two estates at Chisumbanje and Middle Sabi.

Nevertheless, the process by Macdom Investments to secure land for the establishment of the ethanol project was a serious breach of customary and communal land tenure arrangements. This large scale agro – based investment adversely affected food security in Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa due to encroachment on communal land by the project. The encroachment into communal land heightened concerns over potential conflict between the project and villagers configured around food security, land protection and social justice. According to Borras and Franco (2012) a ‘land grab’ is the power to control large quantities of land and landed resources for capital accumulation, and this subsequently signalled a loss in access to land by the common villagers of Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa. 

Platform for Youth Development Trust was set up in 2003 by collective efforts of young people who had witnessed political violence in Chipinge District during the 2000 and 2002 elections, with a view to promote a culture of peace, tolerance and cohesion. Thus, programming activities of PYD were formulated within a conceptual framework of community development to improve the social, cultural, economic and political conditions of the people in Chipinge District. PYD is a non-partisan and non-discriminatory organization and was subsequently registered as a Trust in October 2008, MA 984/2008.  Throughout this period, PYD was understood to be a transformative agent for the construction of community cohesion and common purpose. With this approach, PYD managed to foster a set of community achievement and engagement in relation to the land dispute. 

Community Making and Social Justice

A Community includes people with many different points of view and the freedom to express them, but it has to be inclusive, with the great enemy of community being exclusion.  A community is contemplative as it examines itself, thus it increase awareness of the situation around it and the implication associated thereof. PYD strived to ensure that a community becomes a safe place in the midst of a conflict with an intention to resolve it amicably. 

Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa communities found each other in response to the land dispute, as the conflict became a built – in condition. PYD main goal for achieving social justice in Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa was about identifying and attempting to address structural disadvantage, discrimination and inequality that was glaringly open in the land dispute. The desire for social justice took the form of a struggle for recognition as there was a serious lack of socio – economic and political recognition and also the need for recognition of voice and identity of the land dispute victims. Recognition shaped the identity and expectations of the Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa communities and its absence could have serious negative impact on community cohesion and common purpose. Thus, PYD endeavoured to create a framework that would encourage the community to have a critical questioning of the social context in which the injustice was being perpetrated. 

Large Scale Investment in Chipinge District

Large scale investment can best be described as the transfer of rights to use, control or own land through sale, lease or concession. In the case of the Chisumbanje Ethanol project, land was converted from local community use to commercial use when Greenfuel encroached onto the communal land of Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa. The process of the transfer of land use in Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa was not based on free, prior and informed consent of the communal land users and also not based on a thorough assessment of the investment, but the project was in serious disregard of social, economic and environmental impacts. 

The Chisumbanje Ethanol project can be termed as a crisis management investment, as the government was so determined that it will act as a sanction busting measure. Therefore, there was more political bargaining than economic arrangement in the process of the project design and implementation. The political bargaining was subsequently done with opaque characters with complex political networks in Zimbabwe in order to establish the ethanol project. The Chisumbanje Ethanol project, exhibit huge deficits of transparency, accountability, and contributed to elite capture of land resources. This allowed poor decisions and corrupt practices to be formalized and implemented. ARDA has 5112 hectares of land at its disposal in Chisumbanje whereas the project required an excess of 40 000 hectares but Macdom Investments was allowed to conduct its large scale investment in the area. Thus, the local community was vulnerable and lacked socio - economic safety nets. The project encroachment onto communal land was done by the company despite the fact that such land is integrated into rural communities’ livelihood practices.

The ethanol project has been projected to have been built at a cost of around US$600 million and the face of the project is Billy Rautenbach, a controversial businessman in Zimbabwe. Due to its nature of not being properly conceived, negotiated, and implemented, the project posed a series of threats to the social, cultural, and economic stability in Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwa areas because they depended on land for their livelihood. 

The various attempts by the company to dispossess the villagers of Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwa of their land generated varied forms of conflict and resistance which became the order of the day. This was exacerbated by inadequate consultations, unfulfilled promises from Greenfuel and created uncertainty and mistrust within the local community. The ethanol project failed to institute effective arrangements that could protect the rights of the community and ensure trust from the local villagers. 

The Essence of PYD Intervention Model

Platform for Youth Development (PYD) intervention model was premised on a strategy to achieve local social, economic and cultural resilience. Soon after the 2008 harmonised elections and the subsequent June 2008 run-off, the organisation conducted various community meetings and peace initiatives with a view to promote tolerance and social cohesion. The community was greatly affected by the violent electoral campaign. The community making and peace initiatives helped clarify the nature of peaceful approaches and behaviours in community settings, and learn how to develop, refine, and utilize them in community practice. When conflict was described as not just an issue of human security but also a significant driver of food insecurity in local communities, the participants that included community stakeholders raised the issue of Greenfuel. Thus, the focus was shifted to land rights and social justice. 

Communal land forms part of a broad right to life that underlies Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa livelihoods. PYD intervened because of a strong view that the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil rights includes a duty to refrain from interfering arbitrarily with customary or traditional arrangements for land and reckless polluting water sources in the area. The ethanol project was emboldened in misinformation, hearsay and assumption within the community. Thus, the community and the traditional leadership in Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa officially mandated PYD to assist in providing the missing information about the Greenfuel project. The most sought after information by the community and the traditional leadership related to the economic arrangement between ARDA and Macdom Investments and the role of the Zimbabweans in the arrangement. The PYD main objective in its communal mandate was to provide accurate information that would inform the community engagement process. In the same process, community members faced arbitrary arrests, threats and even their crops ploughed down by Greenfuel, and on each occasion, PYD provided litigation services through its networks. 

The intervention efforts by PYD resulted in the formation of DEPIC (District Ethanol Plant Implementation Committee), after an inter-ministerial committee recommended for its formation and mandated it to bring together all key stakeholders linked to the project. This was a solid information platform, to assess and monitor the ethanol project and its implications to the socio – cultural, economic and environmental conditions of the community. It became a comprehensive, timely and relevant platform that provided the community, traditional leadership and the government with the information they required in order to monitor and mitigate the impacts of the ethanol project. 

Community representatives to DEPIC were popularly elected and Claris Madhuku was elected as an acknowledgement and endorsement of the role that PYD was playing to amicably resolve the land dispute. PYD also provided human rights training to the community to enhance their understanding of issues of land rights and social justice. The newly established ethanol project did not accord well with the practices and norms of the community. Therefore, the land rights and social justice trainings were in parallel with local, regional and international human rights laws in the emphasis upon right to resources vital for livelihoods of local people. The community found that the conceptual framework of the investment did not fit with their local conceptions of livelihoods. 

PYD trainings provided a safeguard against a potential social dynamite that was ready to explode as the community was then trained on positive civil disobedience approaches. Thus, PYD promoted human and civil rights and responsibilities whilst at the same time challenged the underlying causes and effects of structural power imbalances that was slowly manifesting in Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa communities with a view to allow the community move towards the long term goal of a more equal, inclusive and non - sectarian community.   On 4th of December 2017 and 11th of July 2018, PYD convened strategic meetings with Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa communities to review the state of affairs of the land dispute. The meetings noted with grave concern the outstanding issues that merely needed political will to implement and were only hampered by the arrogance of the member of the house of assembly.

Gaps Limiting Social Justice Advocacy

As the social justice advocacy was gaining momentum and the community gaining confidence in its engagement approach the 2013 Harmonised Elections changed the political narrative of Chipinge District. The elections ushered in a new Member of the House of Assembly. Enock Porusingazi was elected as the representative of Chipinge South. Therefore, it became imperative to understand the socio – economic and political context in which the ethanol project was now being viewed and/or defined. 

Mr Enock Porusingazi came with a belief that the DEPIC had no technical ability to assume greater responsibility of engaging the project and subsequently disbanded the committee. It is of the old idea that still persisted in his political orientation that a formal political representative decides for the people and the people have to appreciate. Community participation was subsequently complicated by the politicization of the ethanol project. DEPIC platform was a process that was intended to be inclusive and serve the interests of the community as well as the project, and it effectively perpetuated the exclusion of some part of a community and served the interests of those politically connected to the member of the house of assembly.  

The disbandment of DEPIC affected the drive towards a meaningful social change that was beginning to bear fruits in the community. Mr Porusingazi failed to grasp the basic fact that social change can occur at three levels. The first level of change occurs at a structural level where community based organisations (CBOs) and political mobilisation strategies normally shift control of resources and power to the community. For effective social dialogue, the second level of social change premised on the contestation of ideas was important, where the key stakeholders came to an understanding of their interdependence and the value of mutuality, reciprocity and compassion. This was a key component of DEPIC in order to inculcate a culture of finding common ground. The final level of social change is normally seen at a skills level where the ethanol project stakeholders became skilled in articulating concerns, identifying needs and resolving conflicts, and in so doing, became active agents for social change. The current elected member of the house of assembly for Chipinge South Constituency has a lamentable tendency to dismiss any work from community members, let alone community based organisations which reinforces community polarization trends. 

Since the project was a product of a political bargaining process, it was necessary to clarify the human rights implications of the ethanol project in order to make it clear that both the company and the governments had obligations that they could not simply ignore for the sake of attracting capital. This complex nature of the characteristic of the Chisumbanje Ethanol project presented gaps limiting social justice. 

The Land Dispute from 2008 to current Date in Brief

In the words of Prof Arthur Mutambara’s inter – ministerial committee report of 2012 on the Chisumbanje Ethanol project, the project is of national strategic importance. However, there is currently no national policy guiding the biofuel policy to reflect its national importance but there exist progressive pronouncements made by reputable institutions and/or organisations. In 2012, the inter – ministerial committee recommended that there be a joint district implementation committee be set up and include the Council Chairperson, all local chiefs, the local Member of Parliament, two Councilors, two workers union representatives and four representatives of 7 the displaced and affected households (two from Chisumbanje and two from Chinyamukwakwa). The district administrator was to be the chairperson of the committee. However, after the 2013 harmonised elections, the committee at the instigation of the local member of the house of Assembly in collaboration with the then Minister of Energy and Power Development, Dzikamai Mavhaire. The 2014 Portfolio Committee on Youth, Indigenisation  and Economic Empowerment report to the national assembly reinforced the need to have a DEPIC platform. Other civil society organisations like ZELA, Ruzivo Trust, CiZC captured the community sentiments on the lack of an engagement platform. 

Efforts made by the Platform for Youth Development to engage and talk

 Popularly elected community involving all stakeholders

 Monitoring human rights violation

 Seeking government intervention in terms of the policy pronouncements

 Confrontations (Demonstrations at the mill site and public resistance)

 Media advocacy

 Human rights training

 Litigation

 Community information dissemination

 Training on NonViolence

Issues that remained outstanding

 No clarification on the boundary

 Unfulfilled compensation

 No land audits and verification on complaints linked to beneficiaries

 No community share ownership trust 

 No clear social responsibility thrust from the investment

 Negative impact on Women ( School Dropouts, early Child Marriages, Prostitution, Divorces  due to increased levels of domestic violence, usurpation of traditional leadership power by political and partisan players, intervention by Green fuel in terms of conflicts related to the boundary disputes to weaken the stronger voices, disregard for community platforms meant to engage and talk

The Opportunities for Social Dialogue

 Engaging with the new government

 Clarifying the voice and demands by the community

 Advocacy on the impact of the project on the livelihoods of the villagers and small-scale farmers

 Legal intervention to challenge

Conclusion and Way Forward

Platform for Youth Development Trust has been advocating for the reinstatement of DEPIC as it was a mutually beneficial vehicle for engagement and community cohesion. Its effectiveness was disempowered by the local member of the house of Assembly, Hon Enock Porusingazi. The continued absence of this platform is retrogressive and do not augur with the principles of community engagement and development. 

 That the local member of the house assembly Hon Enock Porusingazi abides by the various recommendations on the Chisumbanje Ethanol project.

 From an observation point of view, the investor has been given too much free play, with less or no pressure to conform from central government. The resultant effect is that, the investor is dictating the pace and arrogantly dismissing any concerns raised by the villagers

 Central government to provide a mechanism for feedback that pressures Green fuel to conform to promises. Other national projects like Chiadzwa and Murowa have received government attention. Green fuel project seems to be an exception therefore increasing the perception that the investor is an untouchable government partner.

PYD Determined to Expose Cases of Harmful Cultural Practices in Chipinge

Harmful cultural practices are a structural problem in Chipinge District and there are different forms in which this phenomenon is manifesting.  These harmful cultural practices are manifesting in the district because Ndau women are torn between breaching confidentiality by using the law and observing allegiance to a patriarchal culture.  In order to address such an anomaly in the efforts to fight harmful cultural practices, PYD endeavoured to raise awareness on the negative effects of the the harmful cultural practices. One of the glaring impediments to the organisation’s advocacy work on confronting harmful cultural practices was the realisation of the disparities that exist between the law and the Ndau culture. 

PYD carried out a project that was intended to mitigate against harmful cultural practices and oppressive powers that have perpetuated the vulnerability and abuse of women and girls in Chipinge district. It was apparent that every time culture and the law meet, more often than not, it is culture that emerges triumphantly with women as victims. 

A 9 year old girl survived a rape attack from her father who is a practising traditional healer in Manzvire. The father had scolded and sends away her elder elder sister before attempting to rape her, whom he had promised biscuits if she would comply. She screamed for help when her father started fondling her private parts. In the same area of Manzvire, a 50 year old businesswoman raped a grade 7 pupil aged 14 years. The businesswoman owns a shop at Manzvire Business Centre. She called the 14 year old boy over to her shop and took him to an inside room where she raped him. Police had to be summoned and upon questioning the businesswoman refused to answer any questions only to confirm the incident when the army personnel were called at the shop. The boy revealed that he was indeed raped. According to the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council (ZNFPC) Manicaland Provincial Manager Mr Dyson Masvingise, Chipinge District has recorded over 700 new cases of sexually transmitted infections. This report further allude to the fact that women are the most affected as there are cases of vaginal discharge as well as genital ulcers. 

Chisumbanje Police are currently attending to a rape case on a daily basis, and the rape victims are normally minors aged between 6 years and 16 years. The perpetrators are male adults who would have been advised by the traditional healers to engage in sex with a virgin as a remedy for being HIV+. This has become a challenge in the local community as the post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) is not readily available in Chipinge District, and also the required 72 hour period for admission of PEP normally lapses as there are transportation challenges and also cultural impediments. 

PYD is appealing to the government to ensure that there are legal provisions that safeguard the minors from sex predators who tend to use culture and misconceptions on HIV as the vehicle through which they can abuse young girls. 

“The situation is bad. As an organisation we have been doing work on strengthening young women’s capacity to confront harmful practices, and we believe that our efforts are bearing fruit as there are more people coming forth with their unfortunate experience. I would like to implore the victims to be strong and have courage to report any violation on their rights.” Cynthia Gwenzi, PYD Gender and Advocacy Officer.

Monetary Policy and Socio – Economic Instability in Chipinge District

On 1st of October 2018, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Dr John Mangudya presented his mid-term monetary policy statement while Minister of Finance,  Prof Mthuli Ncube presented his statement on fiscal measures. This was a moment the nation waited with abated breathe on how the government intended to organize the financial sector in an effort to better serve the people. The expectations of the people were premised on the need to move towards abolishing inequality and exploitation that is prevalent in the economy. The basic role of the monetary policy is to shape and guide our economy and most importantly instill  confidence in the banking system. 

The 2015 Baseline Study of the Title II Development Food Assistance Programs in Zimbabwe posits that 97 percent of the population lives in poverty and that the primary drivers of consumption at the household level are access and availability.

The monetary pronouncement influenced and impacted the people of Chipinge’s livelihood options as it increases uncertainty in the economy. A snap survey by PYD at Checheche growth point, Chibuwe Centre and Vheneka Trading Centre in Chipinge District has discovered that the 2 cents tax per dollar on every electronic transfer has already been effected and prices in local shops have subsequently increased. Cooking oil have increased from $4.50 to $6.50, beef from $4.50/kg to $7/kg and rice from $2.50 to $3 per 2kg. Consumers intending to use ecocash platform are charged 25% more on the stated prices.

“There is panic buying here in ward 28, Vheneka. When the news of shortages was circulating, I rushed to a local pharmacy to buy haematocrit (HCT) for my grandmother. I could not buy it because the stock had dried up within minutes of the rumour. People are not sure of what the 2 cents per dollar actually mean to their livelihood here in Chipinge” said Cherriel Dzobo of Vheneka ward 28.

“In Chibuwe, prices have gone up and people are devastated. After the monetary policy, most traders in the area could not make head or tail of the announcement and they just increased their prices from an uninformed position. Common people are bearing the brunt of the confusion” Catherine Vhutuza of Chibuwe ward 20 was quoted as saying.

PYD strongly believes that the monetary policy imposed high opportunity costs on the vulnerable members of the community who are already reeling in adverse poverty. 

PYD is of the opinion that the consumer uncertainty in Chipinge District represents a harmful element for the effectiveness of monetary policy at community level, and that financial stability must not be considered as a simple goal of monetary policy, but a precondition for reaching the goals of output stability. The governing authorities need to address uncertainty that is prevalent in the community economy by devising precise economic policy to be implemented with the aim of improving the performance of the economy.