Land barons, housing cooperative leaders, property
developers and politically-connected people illegally sold $3 billion worth of
urban State land since 2005 and pocketed most of the cash, a commission of
inquiry has reported.
At least 431 cases of suspected corruption in the sale of
State land need to be investigated and prosecutions instigated, recommended the
Commission of Inquiry into the Sale of State Land in and around Urban
Settlements.
In addition, the commission wants all past and present
Government officers connected with managing State land investigated, including
lifestyle audits, for possible charges of abuse of office, bribery and general
corrupt practices.
Many who bought stands from land barons were cheated,
finding they had no roads, water or sewers and that their stands were on
wetlands, servitudes, sites earmarked for schools, clinics and recreation or
other places where housing was not allowed.
The commission, chaired by Justice Tendai Uchena, was
appointed on February 1, 2018 and completed its mandate in October. The
commission presented its findings to President Mnangagwa yesterday.
The President, who was in the company of his two deputies —
Cdes Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi — at his Munhumutapa offices,
assured the commission that Government will leave no stone unturned in bringing
land barons to book.
“I want to assure you that Government will seriously
examine and interrogate the recommendations you have made for the purpose of
correcting where corrections are needed and institute prosecution where it is
necessary.
“We have a huge challenge as Government to make sure that
our people have basic necessities like water, sewer and roads as highlighted in
the executive summary.
“We will also call upon you to give explanations or
elaborate on some of the recommendations made like the role of the police,
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission
(ZACC) in dealing with the cases that need investigations. Each entity will
identify its role in the process of correcting what went wrong. We do not want
a repeat of the continuous abuse of State land.”
President Mnangagwa’s comments came after the commission
said the Government recovered less than 10 percent of the intrinsic value of
the State land due to corruption.
Value was also lost due to lack of land valuations, the
creation of new urban settlements by aspiring or sitting Members of the
National Assembly, abuse of political office in the allocation and
appropriation of land, as well as the use of names of top Zanu-PF officials to
exert undue influence on Government institutions and processes.
“The commission established that the ministry responsible
for Local Government has a responsibility to value all the farms handed over to
it and recover the monetary value from the local authorities, developers and
cooperatives in the form of intrinsic value.
“However, the ministry responsible for Local Government has
not been able to value all the farms utilised for urban development.
Accordingly, planning, allocations, development and occupation have taken place
without valuation for most farms,” Justice Uchena said.
“The commission’s computation of the total value of the
farms, according to the ministry responsible for Local Government, is US$3 004
368.931. However, the Government has recovered less than 10 percent of the
intrinsic value of the land and is owed almost US$3 billion by beneficiaries of
urban State land. To be exact, the total full prejudice to the State stands at
US$2 977 072 819.”
Besides corruption, the commission called for the exercise
of due diligence in the issuance of certificates of No Present Interest to
avoid instances like the case of Zimati Kop and Rockingstone farms in Makoni
District where one family allegedly acquired State land the size of Rusape
Town.
The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works’ failure
to fully execute its mandate resulted in the illegal sale of urban State land
by cooperative leaders and developers who were pocketing the proceeds without
developing on-site and off-site infrastructure.
“This created opportunities for land barons to sell urban
State land. Land barons are usually politically-connected, self-proclaimed
illegal State land ‘authorities’ who illegally sold the State land in and
around urban areas without accounting for the proceeds.
“Housing development has occurred on unplanned areas such
as wetlands, under power lines, on top of sewer lines, sites designated for
institutional or commercial use (schools and clinics), and recreational centres
and for other public uses.
“The State suffered prejudice due to losses, which occurred
as a result of Ministry of Local Government undervaluing urban State land or
complete failure to value it, poor record keeping, poor financial management
and failure to invoice developers and beneficiaries of urban state land,”
Justice Uchena said.
The commission also identified the policy of parallel
development by the Ministry of Local Government as having contributed to the
problem of houses that were built without adequate services such as access
roads, water and sewer reticulation.
On corruption, Justice Uchena said: “The commission
established that there are several serious cases which require further
investigations by relevant bodies which have arresting and enforcement powers
such as ZACC, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and Zimbabwe Republic Police
(ZRP).
“The statistics for cases recommended for further
investigations are as follows: Harare Metropolitan (156 cases), Mashonaland
East (120), Mashonaland West (50), Midlands (27), Mashonaland Central (25),
Manicaland (22), Masvingo (21), Matabeleland South (five) and the combined
Matabeleland North and Bulawayo Metropolitan (five).”
The commission urged the Government to update all records
of State land and to avoid “issuing large tracts of State land to one
beneficiary because of their political connections such as land which was
offered to Muungwe Properties (Pvt) Ltd owned by one family in Makoni District
which is almost the size of land occupied by Rusape Town Council”.
The commission called for the investigation of all
officers, past and present, involved or connected with management of urban
State land (allocation, planning, valuations, survey, and allocation of
commonage, creation and transfer of title) since 2005 on allegations of abuse
of office, receiving bribes, and general corrupt conduct; and conduct lifestyle
audits on them. Herald
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