The Sunday Mail
Leroy Dzenga
Senior Writer
RURAL land sales, which have become popular over the past few years, are a product of mischief by greedy village heads and are not recognised at law, The Sunday Mail has gathered.
With the demand for land rising in the country, some headmen (Sabhuku) have morphed from being the first administrative port of call in rural communities, to become barefaced land barons.
They are manipulating a constitutional provision which makes them stewards of rural land.
Section 282 of the Constitution says traditional leaders have a responsibility to manage communal lands and protect the environment.
The Communal Lands Act, a law meant to operationalise the constitutional provision in Section 4, says rural land is vested in the President who shall permit it to be occupied and used in accordance with this Act.
Despite knowing that rural land should be dispensed to individuals for free after consultation, traditional leaders have chosen to ignore the law for profit.
Rural areas surrounding Harare like Domboshava, Zvimba, Seke, Mhondoro and Goromonzi are currently experiencing a scramble as enterprising Zimbabweans battle for the fast-running-out space.
Those who have been frustrated by local authorities and cooperatives in urban areas also form part of the target market, especially in peri-urban rural communities.
The Sunday Mail has established that in areas like Mhondoro, one hectare of land is going for US$500 and the costs get higher the closer one gets to the capital.
Areas with a semblance of urbanite development like Zvimba and Domboshava have a higher price tag slapped on them; for example, a one and a half hectare piece of land in Domboshava goes for around US$7 500.
Despite some sellers explicitly revealing that village heads and herdsmen will facilitate transactions, the Government says it does not recognise such deals.
Councillors are in some cases part of the racket.
In an interview with The Sunday Mail, Chief Director for Rural Local Authorities in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, Mr Christopher Shumba, said rural land sale transactions are illegal.
“People who are selling land are stealing from the people. It is illegal for anybody to sell land in that manner. Village heads are allowed to allocate land in situations where areas they preside over have children who may need their own fields and homesteads as they grow. Those are the circumstances that should warrant village heads to allocate rural land,” Mr Shumba said.
Similar considerations can be made in instances where professionals such as teachers or agricultural extension officers familiarise with communities and feel the need to join in permanently.
“The administration of rural land is done by traditional leaders according to Section 282 of the constitution read with Section 5 of the Traditional Leaders Act and Section 8 of the Regional, Town and Country planning Act.
“The Regional, Town and Country Planning and the Traditional Leaders Acts make it clear that where appropriate, any allocation of land by a traditional leader must have regard to customary law relating to the allocation, occupation and use of land in the area concerned,” said Mr Shumba.
Authorities believe the illegal commercialisation of rural land is likely to upset the ecosystem, as it brings with it social implications.
“The problem is we are dealing with cultural issues which are related to people settled in villages, what we would refer to as Chivanhu.
“If you sell rural land, you have disturbed the ecosystem. For instance, sacred ideas that bind communities may not be appealing to those who buy land.
“For instance the idea of Chisi, which says on certain days people should not work on their fields, what guarantees are there that people who buy these pieces of land will adhere to that?” he said.
According to Mr Shumba, if one wishes to join a rural community, they apply to the headman, who consults the Village Assembly, which deliberates on the request.
If satisfied, the village assembly identifies the appropriate space where the applicant can occupy and elevates the conversation to the Village Development Committee (Vidco).
Ordinarily, the Vidco is constituted of about seven people including a youth representative, a woman and elderly members of the community. Both the Vidco and village assembly are chaired by the headman. After the village development committee, the request is taken to the ward assembly made up of village heads within a single ward. They further consider the request.
After the ward assembly, the application goes to the ward development committee. This is chaired by the councillor and it is where legal and social factors are considered.
Council as the planning authority then considers recommendations from all the levels. It then should come up with a resolution to agree or dispute the settlement.
After council agrees, only then can that person be adopted into council records and is subsequently granted rights to occupy land.
However, Mr Shumba explained that the occupation rights granted by the local authority cannot be interpreted as a sale.
“The sale of communal land cannot even be processed by local authorities, in certain cases they can lease it out but rural land cannot be sold without the Minister`s approval,” he said.
The Government says it will seek to put its land to intended use in future and all prior agreements of an opaque nature will not hold sway.
“When Government brings its masterplan, other people may be settled where schools, stadiums, and other amenities may have been planned for. In such an instance, the masterplan will take precedence. The planning authority has a right to determine other uses for the land that people may have occupied,” said Mr Shumba.
There are fears that the essence of rural land, especially to those born in these areas, is going to be eroded as pastures or fields are sold to the highest bidders.
Dr Prosper Matondi, a senior resettlement researcher who holds a PhD in Rural Development, believes the land rush could be an opportunity to reconfigure use of communal land.
“All legal instruments need relating to land need to be brought to the table for review to ensure that they align with the new constitution as well as the emerging need for land. The law has to be dynamic and flexible to ensure that young people can get to own land with minimal barriers to entry. Zimbabwe needs a very clear singular land policy which speaks to all these issues. We can strengthen land governance which guides society in making investment decisions,” Dr Matondi said.
He called for an urgent push to better the country’s land management approaches.
“It is a future that is redefining itself, there is now urban development in rural areas. We need to have land that is surveyed, demarcated, has roads, sewer systems and all the necessary infrastructure. We have to live with that reality. As society urbanises, some social systems like inheritance will be disenabled,” Dr Matondi said.
He also warned against the cultural disruptions which may emerge from the land rush, and the need for them to be handled delicately.
“Progressively over a period of time there has been this gradual loss of land for potential inheritance. Land pressure is rebuilding after years of decongestion. You have got a different framing based on the cosmopolitan nature of societies that are emerging.
“There are sensitivities that need to be taken into account when transferring land in these incipient land markets. There is a need to take that into consideration, sentimental and ancestral aspects like removing people from places where their forefathers are buried. In a society like ours those are sensitive issues,” said Dr Matondi.
Town Planner Dr Percy Toriro said the trend in migration is shifting from the customary rural to urban, to urban to rural migration.
“Rural land at law cannot be sold, it is allocated for use. It is communal land,” said Dr Toriro, urging authorities to look at countries like Botswana on how it has modelled its rural development.
Young people who are looking to widen their streams of income through agricultural projects and the diaspora contingent looking to make investments back home have led the interest in rural land. Their intentions may be well meaning, but the reality is the investments they are making could come to naught if the Government decides to scrutinise rural land deals.
The law does not provide for the sale of communal land. Those who seek to access the resource are legally required to approach village heads to kick-start a process that perhaps may only cost them as they travel to place the request. Village heads and their acolytes, such as councillors, are making a killing, capitalising on desperation, ignorance and excitement of those seeking to get a place they can call their own.
It could all end in tears.
