Fast tracked into citizens or subjects? The impact of Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform on Chiredzi district land beneficiaries’ citizenship.

Abstract

In the early 2000s, the Government of Zimbabwe embarked on the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) with the primary aim of redistributing land from white-owned farms to black farmers under A1 (subsistence) and A2 (commercial) model. Using data collection methods inspired by the tradition of phenomenological research, this paper discusses the impact of FTLRP on citizenship of A1 beneficiaries in Maware and Peter Wenhamo farms in Chiredzi district, Zimbabwe. A central theme on which this paper is anchored on argues that while the FTLRP had instilled feelings of personal worth and the right to belong, feelings of being held as political hostages and helplessness have also ensued among beneficiaries. There is a feeling of increased disenfranchisement, loss of civil liberties, insidious political victimizations and abuse among A1 beneficiaries. In view of this, it is argued that for the FTLRP to realize its intended socio-economic outcomes, there is an urgent need for Zimbabwean authorities to realize that access to the right to agricultural land makes ‘incomplete’ citizens in the absence of civil liberties since the later are empowerment rights to achieve other rights.