A new report of Panos Institute reveals that more than 330,000 Zimbabwean farm workers are reeling under problems of inadequate water supply, poor housing conditions, overcrowding and waste disposal. There are more than two million workers living in abject poverty on the country's commercial farms -- the land that was to be the return of their birthright from white settlers.
Sometime back, President Robert Mugabe had declared that 3,041 farms -- measuring roughly five million hectares -- would be subject to acquisition and distribution to the landless people "for fairness and greater productivity".
The Zimbabwe army helped move 500,000 landless black families onto lands confiscated from white land owners.
The report has put the blame for the present plight of the farm workers on the Zimbabwean government. No policy has been put in place by the government, say the Panos researchers.
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