Finding good news in Zimbabwe is really like looking for a needle in a haystack, but hard as it may, I had to look for something positivethis week.
A lot of us are still licking our emotional wounds after last week’s devaluation of the local currency which resulted in massive losses of incomes and savings.
Some might recover from these losses but for some, they have fallen and never to rise.
But still, we have to keep going and find reasons to smile in the midst of these hardships.
Beneficiaries of the country’s land reform programme are celebrating this week following government’s major shift to its land policy which now allows selling of farms; though only to indigenous Zimbabweans.
Resettled farmers will now also be given a “bankable, registrable and transferable document of tenure, meaning that they are now full owners of the land, unlike before when the farms technically belonged to the state.
The country’s land reform programme was launched in the year 2000 where vast pieces of land was repossessed from white land owners and given free of charge to black people.
With the latest development, resettled can sell portions of their land if they so wish and hopefully plough back the money into production.
Many farmers have in the past lamented about lack of capital to kick start massive project as they could also not borrow funds using the farms as collateral, but all that should be a thing of the past now.
Another positive thing to note, though not land related is how the regime has managed to ensure that there is enough maize despite the worst drought in over 40 years.
When it became clear that the country and the region as a whole had been hit by drought, there were fears that there would be serious mealie meal shortages which would in turn push up the cost, and for us famers, the fear was twofold, we thought we would struggle to get stockfeed.
In previous drought years people were forced to eat yellow maize, commonly known as Kenya as the usual white maize was scarce.
Sadza (palitshi) is our staple food and when there is shortage of mealie meal, many households are greatly affected.
But this time around, you would never think it’s a drought year, mealie meal is readily available and at reasonable prices, and the same goes with stockfeed which has maize as the main ingredient.
Anyway I am just giving credit to the regime, considering our past experiences when it’s a drought, and in case I am all for positive vibes this week.
