The agrarian labour relations generated after the ‘Fast Track’ Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) tend to be neglected in most literature after 2000. This neglect largely resulted from the dismissal of the redistributive nature of the FTLRP and changing patterns of agricultural production by some studies (see Marongwe 2009; Masiiwa and Chipungu 2004; Hellum and Derman 2004; Sachikonye 2004; Davies 2004; Richardson 2005). The distributional outcomes of the FTLRP, which in turn shape a restructured agrarian labour regime, have, however, been acknowledged in a few empirical studies (Moyo et al 2009; Scoones et al 2010).

This chapter examines the transformation of agrarian labour relations after the radical restructuring of agrarian property relations since 2000. It begins with an examination of how colonial land dispossession and policy shifts after 1980 shaped agrarian labour relations in Zimbabwe, which provides the basis for evaluating the changes generated by the FTLRP. It then explores whether a new agrarian labour regime has emerged to replace those that were structured around land alienation, social relations of labour residential tenancy2 and private property. The different types of farm and non-farm sources of employment that have emerged in relation to the new land use patterns and the social and economic conditions under which this labour is employed are assessed on the basis of detailed empirical studies conducted by the AIAS since 2000 and other secondary sources. The assessments of the struggles being waged by labourers to improve their material conditions precede our conclusions.