The Right to be Rural. Social Services Delivery in Fast Track Farms from Robert Mugabe to Emmerson Mnangagwa

Zimbabwe’s fast track land reform radically reconfigured the agrarian structure from bimodal to trimodal along with reconstituting the former large-scale farms. From being home to approximately 4 500 white commercial farmers, and having been designed for few people in terms of social services, the population rose to 180 000 households. These changes occurred against a context of vacuity in pre-settlement investment due to the spontaneous character of the land reform and incapacity on the part of the Government of Zimbabwe. Compared to the period between independence and the adoption of Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) often labelled the golden decade, from 1990, Zimbabwe is embroiled in economic and political crises whose causes are both domestically and transnationally located. The country’s post-colonial trajectory is marked by ongoing social services questions, sustained urban-rural divide and broadly rural development lacunae that are mainly rooted in colonial accumulation by dispossession and alienation of the indigenous populations, and constrained government capacity. In addition, the radical and chaotic character of the fast track and largely the indigenisation policy led to international isolation, donor withdrawal, recession in the operation of international non-governmental organisations and acute macroeconomic underperformance. Scholarly focus on social services in the aftermath of the fast track, social services as a fundamental dimension of social policy, and broadly land reform as a social policy tool is low but gaining momentum. The new land beneficiaries are increasingly calling upon the government to recognise their rights to development particularly addressing social services gaps in the former large-scale commercial farms. Signalling continuity of the lacunae from Mugabe to Mnangagwa, concerns on social questions in the countryside are heightening against a context where the capability of the government is either stagnant or tumbling. In this context, based on data generated from two rural districts through mixed methods and analysed using transformative social policy lens, the paper advances the need to deliver social services to the farms as arenas for rural and national development. The ‘new’ dispensation headed by Emmerson Mnangagwa who assumed presidency after a soft coup that toppled Robert Mugabe in December 2017 thereby marking a critical juncture for change, should prioritise social services development and delivery in and beyond the farms. How can this policy shift be achieved? Revealing inadequacy to handle domestic development, since 2017, Mnangagwa’s administration is globetrotting to mend international relations and attract foreign direct investment to rebuild the economy. But, is this external support independent of conditionalities, undue influence and clientelist politics in terms of design, financing and control? Overall, despite Zimbabwe being a state entangled in transnational politics and economics, reorientation of social and development policy to national interests should continue to be vigorously pursued.