President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe will respect and honour
property rights and the 99-year leases, which are currently being given to
farmers, are transferable.
Speaking in an interview with Alec Russell of the Financial
Times in Harare on Tuesday, the Head of State and Government said the 99-year
leases cannot be expected to affect landholders since they provide sufficient
security and tenure.
“To the extent that we honour property rights in relation
to land, we’ve introduced the 99-year lease tenure. We don’t have freehold
anymore, although we still have people holding freehold land, but we have now
legislated for 99-year leases which are transferable,” said President
Mnangagwa.
“This is where we’re going and we don’t see a person
getting worried, being granted a 99-year lease; very few people live beyond 99
years, but if they do they can always renew.
“That is with regard to agricultural land. Of course our
land has different categories.
“The communal lands which have (unclear) people on them;
there is no limit, it is a freehold. But agricultural land is a 99-year lease,
yes,” he said.
Government, he said, will continue compensating white
former commercial farmers who lost their land through the land reform
programme.
Government is currently raising funds from the fiscus to
pay the farmers. “That is an ongoing exercise. In terms of our law we are
obligated to compensate any developments on land which was compulsorily
acquired under the land reform programme.
“And some farmers have already been compensated, but the
large number of them have not and we are continuously raising funds on the
fiscus for that compensation, although the persons affected are not too happy
because the pressure’s very strong,” he said.
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