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The politics of Zimbabwe's land reform: winners and losers
The political debates about the rights and wrongs of Zimbabwe's land reform continue to occupy many.The tired, old obsession about how the land was taken and the associated focus on so-called ...Published: 31 Mar 2024 at 16:34hrs | 1 | by Ian Scoones
Medium-scale commercial farming in Zimbabwe post-land reform programme: A new picture is emerging
WE have a new open access paper out in the Journal of Modern African Studies "Medium-scale commercial agriculture in Zimbabwe: The experience of A2 resettlement farms".Contrary to assertions t...Published: 01 Mar 2021 at 05:02hrs | 2 | by Ian Scoones
Can South Africa come to Zimbabwe's rescue by ending 'quiet diplomacy'?
Zimbabwe's worsening economic and political crises seem to be never-ending and still getting worse. The misplaced expectations that the "new dispensation" would provide an escape route following the 2...Published: 01 Feb 2021 at 19:03hrs | | by Ian Scoones
A year after Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean politics appear to have changed due to the media reportage of the past twelve months since Robert Mugabe's ouster in the political scene. The question of a new Zimbabwe in the name of the n...Published: 15 Nov 2018 at 12:29hrs | 1 | by Brian Maregedze
Settling land compensation issue vital for Zimbabwe's economy
IN his inaugural address, the new President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, confirmed that land reform was both historically necessary and irreversible.He also made a commitment to compensate...Published: 13 Nov 2018 at 06:09hrs | | by Ian Scoones
Farm viability: Implications for land reform, investment
THERE are many misconceptions about farming in southern Africa, and one of the most insidious is the notion of "viability". A narrow economistic version has predominated that is based on a nor...Published: 03 Oct 2018 at 07:17hrs | | by Ian Scoones
What does investment look like on the ground in Zimbabwe?
LAST week I was at the African Studies Association of the UK (ASA) conference in Birmingham. I was co-hosting, with my colleague Jeremy Lind (whose earlier blog this one draws from), a fantastic strea...Published: 18 Sep 2018 at 06:31hrs | | by Ian Scoones
What happened to Mugabe's land reforms?
Zimbabweans will vote in the country's first presidential election since Robert Mugabe stepped down after more than 30 years in office.In the past few decades, the southern African country has...Published: 27 Jul 2018 at 08:22hrs | | by BBC
Settling the land compensation issue is vital for Zimbabwe's economy
IN his inaugural address the new President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, confirmed that land reform was both historically necessary and irreversible. He also made a commitment to compensate farmers...Published: 08 Jan 2018 at 12:45hrs | | by Ian Scoones
What is happening along Africa's eastern seaboard?
THE eastern seaboard of Africa from Kenya to Tanzania to Mozambique has become a major focus of attention. The ports - from Bagamoyo to Beira - are seen as the gateway to Africa, a place where great r...Published: 18 Oct 2017 at 06:08hrs | | by Ian Scoones
Trump's Zimbabwe connection
Donald Trump will be sworn in as United States president this week. So far, according to ...Published: 17 Jan 2017 at 11:28hrs | | by Ian Scoones
Zimbabwe: the rise of the informal trader and a new political economy
The protest by Zimbabweans against police road blocks and banned imports highlights a new political economy that is rising on the back of informalisation of the economy, writes Professor Ian Scoones o...Published: 15 Jul 2016 at 17:42hrs | 14 | by Ian Scoones
Zimbabwe: Not in a thousand years!
Let's start with a series of small, light-hearted but revealing anecdotes. Beitbridge. I am told there was quite some build-up of tension on both sides of the bridge, which means a build-up from South...Published: 02 Jul 2016 at 12:01hrs | 1 | by Nathaniel Manheru
Myths, truths about Mugabe's Zimbabwe
Disembarking from the plane at Harare International Airport in Harare last week, a passenger standing next to me uttered what sounded like a Swahili word: "Tuonane." This article was first published i...Published: 18 May 2015 at 13:23hrs | | by Mohamed Guleid
Minister acts against Maleme Ranch and Cyrene Mission land dispute
LANDS and Rural Settlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora has sent a delegation to Matabeleland South to gather facts on land disputes that have rocked the province.Last week this paper re...Published: 15 Mar 2015 at 09:19hrs | | by Lungile Tshuma
Zanu-PF in a bind after elections
ON July 31 last year, Zanu-PF were victorious in the elections. The opposition was annihilated.The elections were disputed by many, and many questions were raised about the process, but most c...Published: 15 Aug 2014 at 08:18hrs | | by Academic Ian Scoones
Is Zimbabwe headed to a new political discourse?
IS our opposition politics hitting a tipping point? Are we headed towards a new political discourse that gives Zimbabwe priority over foreign interests, a political discourse that fosters faith i...Published: 24 May 2014 at 20:29hrs | | by Joram Nyathi
Zimbabwe will be awash with money from rich friends
MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai continued his "rich friends" mantra at rallies he held in Masvingo, Magunje and Kariba over the weekend.Addressing his supporters at a rally at Mucheke Stadiu...Published: 15 Jul 2013 at 03:38hrs | | by Staff reporter
Lessons from Zimbabwe's land reform: A reply to Tony Hawkins
Zimbabwe's land reform suggests that small commercial farmers are more productive than giant mechanised farms, and thus can do more to reduce poverty. This represents a challenge to many preconceived ...Published: 04 Jun 2013 at 03:52hrs | | by Joseph Hanlon
Morgan Tsvangirai - Small man in a big chair
Before Morgan Tsvangirai entered the world of governance he enjoyed a rather stupendous mass of sympathy support, both at home and abroad. This was precisely because opposition politics was merely ab...Published: 17 May 2013 at 05:24hrs | | by Reason Wafawarova
The rehabilitation of Robert Mugabe
HE has been a schoolteacher, freedom fighter and political prisoner. He has gone from admired independence leader to despised autocrat. Now a life that spans nine decades could be about to add its l...Published: 11 May 2013 at 21:45hrs | | by The Guardian
White journalists, academics joins the Zanu-PF bandwagon - Roy Bennett
There is a new fashion developing among some white journalists and academics: they have joined with Zanu-PF in presenting 'land reform' as a success. It began with English academic, Ian Scoone...Published: 05 May 2013 at 06:26hrs | | by Roy Bennett
Robert Gabriel Mugabe: Visionary or Mad Man?
A look into how the land reform has affected Zimbabwe "The land is ours. It's not European and we have taken it, we have given it to the rightful ...Published: 16 Mar 2013 at 19:10hrs | | by Brendah Nyakudya
Zimbabwe land reform has dramatically improved lives
More than 10 years after the chaotic and often violent farm invasions that accompanied Zimbabwe's fast-track land reform programme, a new book argues that the redistribution programme has dram...Published: 05 Feb 2013 at 17:06hrs | | by IRIN
Revolutionary essence of the historic indigenisation reform programme
What is the revolutionary essence of the historic indigenisation reform programme and what are its ideological, legal and policy ramifications?It has become necessary to unpack this question i...Published: 03 Feb 2013 at 06:30hrs | | by Prof Jonathan Moyo
In Zimbabwe land reform, a golden lining
When Roger Boka started his auction business in the 1990s, this city's tobacco trading floors were hushed places, save the mellifluous patter of the auctioneer. A handful of white farmers, each sellin...Published: 21 Jul 2012 at 06:19hrs | | by Lydia Polgreen
Zimbabwe's Land Reform: myths and realities
Zimbabwe's Land Reform: myths and realitiesby Ian Scoones(Weaver Press, R175 )This book by Ian Scoones, Blasio Mavengedze, Jacob Mahenehene, Felix Murimbarimba and Chrispen Sek...Published: 02 Jun 2011 at 20:37hrs | 1 | by Ian Scoones
Challenging Western Distortions about Zimbabwe's Land Reform
For years, Western journalists have castigated Zimbabwe's land reform program. From afar, they pronounced land ...Published: 22 Feb 2011 at 07:01hrs | | by Gregory Elich
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