The Zimbabwean government announced a significant change to its land policy, permitting beneficiaries of past land reforms to sell or transfer their farms, but exclusively to “indigenous Zimbabweans.”
Speaking to the media after a cabinet meeting in Harare on Tuesday, October 8, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Jenfan Muswere, said that the new policy aims to “unlock value” and will provide farmers who benefited from the 2000 land reforms with a “bankable, registrable, and transferable document of tenure.”
The government has also implemented an indefinite moratorium on the issuance of new 99-year leases or permits for agricultural land.
This announcement may indicate the conclusion of Zimbabwe’s contentious land reform programme, which involved the seizure of land from white owners and its redistribution to indigenous blacks.
Below is the announcement by Muswere in full:
<blockquote>
The land reform programme was carried out for the purpose of divesting ownership of agricultural land from the minority white farmers to the black majority people of Zimbabwe.
The rationale of the land reform was to address the inequalities that existed during the colonial era and to ensure that every Zimbabwean had equitable access to his finite resource.
The constitution and other legislative provisions that deal with the administration of agricultural land have mechanisms and safeguards to ensure that the legacy and benefits of the land reform are protected and land reform is irreversible.
The noticeable new paradigm amongst Zimbabwean farmers, especially the majority of beneficiaries of land reform, is to regard and conduct farming as a business; as a source of both livelihood and means to increasing personal economic value. Our young people have positively embraced the land reform programme and now account for a significant proportion of the country’s commercial farmers.
The government has since 2008 put in place various programmes to assist farmers to be productive on the land. The support includes the Baccossi Inputs and Mechanisation Equipment; Maguta and the Special Grains Import Substitution Programme among others.
In the second republic, the country has witnessed and benefited from the government’s deliberate and complementary policy of incorporating accelerated infrastructure development which includes road construction and rehabilitation incorporating the much needed rural roads; dam construction; irrigation and housing development.
While our people are endowed with agricultural land resulting from progressive government policies, they continue to grapple with the following challenges:
1. Difficulty in accessing affordable, appropriately structured and adequate finance for sustainable commercial agriculture.
2. In the absence of security of tenure, the farmers are not sufficiently motivated to invest adequately and to develop robust infrastructure on their farms to enhance sustainable production.
3. The threat to land tenure, especially to successors entitled to land held by beneficiaries of the land reform programme (such as children or war veterans) arising from inheritance and fraudulent succession issues.
4. While the government conceived and implemented these positive programmes, there have been varying levels of accountability from the farmers with a significant proportion of the farmers feeling no obligation to pay back loans advanced.
Consequently, the government has remained saddled with debt emanating from unpaid agricultural loans by many farmers.
5. The menace of land barons who have little or no regard for our town and country planning laws and policies has put a strain on the local authorities’ infrastructure. The land barons develop haphazard and unplanned settlements with no basic services such as water, electricity, sewer reticulation and storm water drainage.
Against this background and in line with section 292 of the constitution read together with sections 289, 293 and 294 that obligates the state to give security of tenure to every person and to alienate for value agricultural land among other requirements, the government will implement the following measures:
1. All land held by beneficiaries of the land reform programme under 99-year leases; offer letters and permits will now be held under a bankable, registrable and transferable document of tenure to be issued by the government of Zimbabwe to beneficiaries. As such, beneficiries of the land reform programme will now have enhanced security of tenure to the land they legitimately hold.
This new policy will invariably be informed by the following guidelines:
a) Priority will be given to veterans of the liberation struggle, women and youths.
b) Security of tenure to all agricultural land regularised under this programme will at all times only be transferable among indigenous Zimbabwe.
c) The land targeted for the new land tenure system will exclude communal land that is under the jurisdiction of traditional chiefs.
2. Urban land will only be made commercially available to credible and approved land developers who will add value to the land in compliance with all relevant laws and protocols. Ultimately, the goal is to establish high quality housing developments in fulfilment of our vision of an upper-middle income society by 2030. Areas that are not in use within cities will be considered for development. Urban renewal, urban transformation and regularisation will also be given priority.
These agricultural and urban land measures will have a huge impact on our economic growth, and will unlock the full value of the land while enhancing the performance of our economy. This will facilitate accelerated investments in agriculture and associated value chains which include irrigation, dam construction, power supply and rural road construction.
The economic value enhancement on land will further unlock resources for the fulfilment of constitutional obligations related to land reform. All these measures will complement current efforts towards an upper middle income economy, which will be achieved by 2030.
The president has constituted a cabinet oversight committee chaired by defence minister Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri to lead this reform process.
A technical committee – the Land Tenure Implementation Committee (LTIC) – to coordinate and steer the implementation of this process will also be constituted.
These committees will work diligently to develop improved security of tenure for land beneficiaries, while ensuring that value of agricultural and urban state land is fully unlocked to guarantee inclusive and nationwide economic development. Detailed terms of reference have been developed for the two committees.
Accordingly, the government hereby issues an indefinite moratorium on the issuance of any new 99-year leases or permits for agricultural land.
In conclusion, the government remains committed to jealously safeguarding the gains of the liberation struggle including our precious land and everything beneath it. Never again will our land fall back into the hands of our erstwhile colonisers. The utilisation of this land will be guided by our time-tested mantra: Nyika Inovakwa Nevene Vayo/Ilizwe Lakhiwa Ngabanikazi Balo.
</blockquote>
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Pindula News

The Zimbabwean government is allowing farmers who benefited from past land reforms to sell their land, but only to indigenous Zimbabweans. This new policy aims to provide farmers with a bankable document of tenure. The government has also stopped issuing new 99-year leases for agricultural land. The announcement may mark the end of the land reform program that took land from white owners and gave it to black Zimbabweans. The government wants to help farmers be productive, face challenges, and improve the economy. Committees will work on implementing the new policy, which aims to unlock the economic value of land and achieve an upper middle income economy by 2030.

Zimbabwe Government Eases Land Policy: Resettled Farmers Can Now Sell Land To Indigenous Blacks

Land officers have been urged to shun corruption in discharging their duties, especially in land distribution and dispute resolution, reported <a href="https://www.zbcnews.co.zw/?p=18590">ZBC News</a>.
The call was made by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Obert Jiri.
Jiri was speaking at a one-day land use and planning management training workshop held at the Midlands Convention Centre in Gweru last Thursday. Said Jiri:
<blockquote>
Let us make the land issue the pride of our nation through cultivating a culture of absolute transparency, and sincerity, and fostering a corrupt-free environment.
I want to take this opportunity to warn you that whoever will be involved in corruption entanglements will face the long arm of the law.
We want you to represent the ministry well by executing your duties well.
</blockquote>
Jiri also said there is a need to rotate land officers as a measure to mitigate corruption.
Ministry of Land officials have been accused of rampant illegal sales and distribution of state land.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Land Officers Warned Against Corruption

The Government is yet to fulfill its promise made in September 2021 to offer land to medical practitioners in private practice across the country’s 10 provinces.
In 2021, the Medical and Dental Private Practitioners Zimbabwe Association (MDPPZA) wrote to President Emmerson Mnangagwa requesting land and import duty exemptions.
The Government acceded to the request and directed provincial lands officers through their respective Provincial Affairs ministries to offer land to the medical practitioners.
However, almost two years later, not a single doctor has been given a piece of land by the Government.
MDPPZA president Johannes Marisa on Thursday confirmed the issue to <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200010762/govt-yet-to-honour-doctors-land-pledge">NewsDay</a>. He said:
<blockquote>
We are getting different responses from the provincial lands offices, but the bottom line is that none of our members has received any piece of land under this facility.
We have been engaging the provincial lands offices in our respective provinces with nothing coming out.
We want to take this issue above and engage His Excellency, President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
</blockquote>
NewsDay reported that Health deputy minister John Mangwiro and ministry spokesperson Donald Mujiri were both not reachable for comment.
Over the past few years, medical practitioners in the public sector have staged strikes over poor working conditions, low salaries, and lack of resources in the health sector.
More: <a href="https://zero.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Govt Reneges On Doctors' Land Pledge

Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution for Harare Metropolitan Province Tafadzwa Muguti said that the Government will deal decisively with Harare City Council officials corruptly acquiring land and selling it to line their pockets.
Muguti was responding to a Twitter post by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Nick Mangwana.
Mangwana had alleged that CCC councillors bought land at 10 cents ($0.10) per square metre for an Industrial stand in Glaudina.
Muguti bemoaned corruption at the local authority saying graft had reached “disgusting levels.” He said:
<blockquote>
We have been witnessing massive land sales even in wetlands. When I engaged the Mayor [Jacob Mafume] he also expressed concern.
We will get to the bottom of this and find out who did what and when. I can promise that we will deal decisively with all those who cut corners to enrich themselves.
We will not leave any stone unturned as we seek the truth. The level of corruption in the [Harare City Council] has reached exhaustion and disgusting levels.
The land is easily sold off including wetlands with no change of use. Heads will roll that I can promise.
</blockquote>
Last week a <a href="https://www.herald.co.zw/massive-harare-land-looting-exposed/">report by The Herald</a> claimed that CCC and MDC Alliance councillors, working in cahoots with top council officials, were buying commercial and industrial stands for as little as US$60 and reselling them at more than US$120 000.

"Heads Will Roll," Muguti Warns "Corrupt" Harare Councillors

The spokesperson for the Thokozani Khupe led MDC-T, Linda Masarira has said that her party will redistribute land and give tenure to farmers, if it wins the July 30 elections. She also said that her party wanted to ensure that farmers moved away from subsistence farming. Said Masarira,
<blockquote>The party will ensure that land is redistributed equally and equitably and will ensure that all people are capacitated to use land profitably. The party’s position is to also ensure that all the farmers will have security of tenure so as to enable them to access loans since commercial farming is capital intensive, thereby it needs a lot of money which most farmers cannot raise without the assistance of financial institutions.</blockquote>
More: <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/2018/07/mdc-t-khupe-to-redistribute-land/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">NewsDay</a>

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