Repossessing land goal of Zimbabwe's vice president By Donna F.G. Hailson Board member, American Baptist Evangelicals Written for The Association for Church Renewal Tuesday, December 22, 1998 HARARE, Zimbabwe - "Christians are bound by allegiance to God's law," Vice President Simon V. Muzenda of Zimbabwe told delegates to the World Council of Churches' Eighth Assembly. Thus, he insisted, the WCC should recognize the right of Zimbabweans to "repossess the land taken from us in the years of colonization, the years of the locust." For biblical support, he cited Leviticus 25:33 and Ezekiel 11:17. Those passages include a command to redeem the property of the Levites at Jubilee and a promise that the Sovereign Lord will gather His scattered people and restore to them the land of Israel. "It is entrenched in the Zimbabwean constitution that if one does not have the money to buy back the land, it will revert back at Jubilee," Muzenda said. Muzenda delivered his remarks against the backdrop of harsh economic realities in Zimbabwe. Unemployment is estimated at over two million (or 40 percent) and rising. The Zim dollar has so depreciated - now $34Zim to $1US, a 70 percent fall in 12 months - that the cost of living is far beyond the reach of many low- and middle-income earners. Zimbabweans have to pay school and hospital fees in line with government policies on cost recovery, and all sectors of business are reeling from the effects of high interest rates. 3,000 street children The country has seen nationwide food riots as an estimated 25 percent of its 12 million people are starving. Its capital city, Harare, is "home" to an estimated 3,000 street children. Its university has been closed to students for eight months. And, recently, President Robert Mugabe has committed troops to aid the government in the civil war within the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The land issue, which provided the focus for Muzenda's presentation, has been basically a race issue in Zimbabwe, given the colonial system of land tenure. On the issue of adequate compensation for current (white) landholders, many Africans argue that colonialists and settlers paid nothing when they took the land from indigenous people (sources: WCC publications "Jubilee" and "Welcome to Zimbabwe"). Past support by WCC When the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) parties formed in the early 1960s, the WCC financially supported their efforts against the white colonial government. Muzenda thanked the WCC for this "humanitarian assistance" and urged delegates to now work for land restoration and debt cancellation in line with the assembly's theme of Jubilee. Finally, Muzenda urged the WCC to promote and protect the institution of the family, especially in light of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. More than 10 percent of people in Zimbabwe are believed to be HIV-positive. Zimbabwe recorded an average of 500 deaths per week during 1996 and the first half of 1997. Over the next decade, life expectancy is forecast to drop from 55.3 to 30.4 years for males and 58.6 to 31.7 for females. Muzenda called upon the WCC assembly to "bring the healing hand of Christ to our ailing nation."

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