But the AIDS epidemic and the growing number of orphans have added to their burdens and reduced the amount of time they can devote to work. A government study last year indicated that the productivity of individual women has fallen by between 50 and 65 percent. To these burdens must now be added thousands of impoverished farm workers. The stated purpose of Mugabe's land campaign is to alleviate poverty in congested communal areas. Yet by displacing farm workers, the policy could actually be self-defeating.
Commercial farms provide homes and basic help for thousands of disadvantaged people.
Whenever the government resettles a property, the orphans, most of whom have lost their parents to AIDS, are generally the first to disappear without trace. Many farmers provide their workers with schools and all offer basic healthcare. Once displaced workers lose these services, the government does not have the means to replace them. It's a dreadful scenario. Perhaps 200,000 workers and their dependants, about 1.5 million in total, live on these farms.