"Rural Land Cannot Be Sold, It Is Vested In The President"
The High Court has ruled that rural district councils (RDCs) do not have the authority to sell communal land.
According to the Communal Land Act, the Rural District Councils Act, and the Traditional Leaders Act, leasing or selling traditional, communal, and grazing lands is prohibited.
Recently, the High Court nullified a land sale involving a family trust and the Buhera Rural District Council.
As reported by The Herald, the dispute centred around a 40-hectare plot in Madzivanyika Village, which included homesteads for over 35 villagers, as well as grazing lands and communal fields.
The land had been sold to the Munda Family Trust to construct a boarding school, with plans to evict the 35 families already in progress.
The affected villagers challenged the local authority’s decision in the High Court.
Justice Webster Chinamora declared the sale illegal and voided the agreement between the Munda Family Trust and the council. He ruled:
The application for a declaratory order be and is hereby granted. The agreement of sale of 40 hectares of communal land situated in the Madzivanyika Village, Chief Chitsunge Buhera, entered into between Munda Family Trust and Buhera Rural District Council dated March 23 2020 be and is hereby declared illegal and is accordingly cancelled.
The first and second respondents (Munda Family Trust and Mr Pomerai Munda) are and are hereby ordered not to evict any of the villagers residing at the 40 hectares of communal land.
In their application for a declaratory order, the villagers argued that communal land is vested in the President of Zimbabwe, and the local authority can only allocate land in line with the customary laws relating to allocation, occupation and use of communal land.
They further argued that a rural district council did not have the right and power to dispose of, by way of sale, any portion of communal land.
In his judgment, Justice Chinamora said it was clear that communal land could not be sold.
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