Chiredz SOUTH AFRICA slug itout igerian when the next humiliation came and Nkomo was demoted in a nt said Cabinet reshuffle, white had no option but to acedia cept it. to take ds. It is To have without a political alterMOZAMBIQUE Joshua they pulled out Pt - partly because it is La more centralised party President:
Zimbabwe (ZANLA).
Yogoslavia, PF (ZAPU)
Soviet Union, Angola. Main support among THE PARTIES ZANU (PF) - Zimbabwe African National. Union (Patriotic Front). Founded in 1963 after a split in ZAPU. Holds 57 (out of 80) of the parliamentary seats open to blacks.
Robert Mugabe, who is Zimbabwe's first Prime Minister. Guerilla army:
National Liberation Army Main backers during the liberation war:
China, Romania, Bulgaria, Mozambique, Tanzania. Main support among Shona peoples of northern and eastern ZimFront (Zimbabwe African People's Union). Founded in Democratic Party. Holds 20 parliamentary seats.
President: Joshua Nkomo, who is one of five PF Ministers in Government. Guerilla army: Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army Main backers during the liberation war:
Germany, Zambia, Nebele and Kalanga peoples of western Zimbabwe. ZIMBABWE is expecting record maize crop this year. Yet, according to the Ministry of Health, in areas as many 60-80 poei under-fives are malnourished.
In a few places people are actually starving to death.
Why is there such suffering when Zimbabwean agriculture booming? One reason is the effect of the war. The Rhodesian army had a policy called 'Operation Turkey' which consisted of destroying all food supplies which Sate might reach the guerillas.
Even worse in some respects was the policy of 'protected villages'. Ihree-quarters of million people were herded into these glorified prison camps.
The available Lillic for growing food was cut short strict curfew hours. Often people were so far from their fields that they could not reach them at all. Cattle had to be lett outside and were often lost, stolen or shot.
Without cattle people are unable to plough and you Willi government has not been able to help out with was tractors. • Many people will not harvest enough food this year.
But an even more profound cause of food shortages is the system of land distmbution. Harn land is divided roughly halt and halt betweer white and black There are about times black farmers as white. Fertile Black land was less as fertile to start with and of things have got WUISC overcrowule Even before the war people the tribal LI USI lands getting the avclare annual quirement of maize, the staple food.
This racial division exe ain have star pation.
have starvation alle a record crop al tnt same time The government has a programme of resettlIng people tribal trust lands former white the Lancaster House agreement it has to pay compensation.
By the beginning of the last planting scasul less than 10,000 people out of 4.5m in the tribal trust lands had been resettled.
Jail Some people decided to take matters into their own hands and simply take over white land. The government clamped down and a number ol the squatters were sent to the jail.
But when it became obvious that rank-and-file members parties supported squatters the government backed down and them stav for this vear As one squatter said: "This is Zimbabwe, Rhodesia. You don't have to buy land.
The way that people are ready to take the in. itiative regardless of the party leaders is the most encouraging sign LOUdy it cal be seen all over the rural especially among ai cas. women Rhodesian law, women are minors. It means that they can't CaVO nome look work or make decisions their children without the permission father, husband or guardian.
They suffer lowest wages and highest unemployment. and they do a large part of the agricultural work. Militant on Yet, against all the odds, they are in the forefront of popular self-organisation setting up a democratic health care system, women's anacultuid tives, and so on.
crucial development is that industrial and mine workers have beet gel ting increasingly militant since independence.
There been strikes over economic issues, especially at the Wankie coal mines owned by the South African Anglo-American Corporation and the largest enterprise in the country.
The Minister inspeatedly Labour has the intervened in strikes on the employers let Government-controlled radio even, quite improbably, accused Wankie miners of being responsible for the slow progress the land Socialist Challenge 12 March 1981 Page 9