Daggers are drawn in Zanu PF over ruling party officials that are amassing land in urban areas, which they sell to desperate home-seekers, with some disgruntled youths demanding action.
A letter to President Emmerson Mnangagwa by Zanu PF youths
in Mashonaland West and messages on WhatsApp groups belonging to different
wings of the ruling party obtained by this publication show that tension is
rising over the land grabs.
The issue of people that have amassed vast tracts of land
illegally in the cities, referred to as land barons, has come to the fore in
recent weeks after 190 houses were demolished in Harare’s Budiriro suburb after
the owners illegally occupied council land.
Caleb Kadye, a Zanu PF member, has been identified as the
leader of Events Housing Cooperative that invaded a site reserved by council
and subdivided it.
Government said members of the cooperative paid US$2 000
each for the stands and indicated that the Budiriro debacle was a tip of the
iceberg as the capital city had tens of such cooperatives that occupied land
illegally from around 2012.
The letter to Mnangagwa from Zanu PF youths in Mashonaland
West reveals that the rot could have permeated to most parts of the country.
According to the youths, some of their leaders in the
province have acquired 40 hectares of state land they intend to use for their
own personal gain, including creating housing stands for sale.
The letter claimed there was a plot by key youth officials
in Mashonaland West, who were using fake claims to get state land in Kadoma.
“This is all based on a fraudulent claim whereby in the
documents they sent to Chinhoyi provincial local government offices, he (the
Zanu PF official) only printed his name and three other youths, who include two
ladies who are notoriously known in Kadoma for land scams and defrauding land
seekers,” says the letter naming a prominent youth league official.
“They have been to court multiple times on fraud charges,
your offices can check with the Kadoma Magistrates Court about the two ladies.”
“So they hatched a plan to personalise the land once they
get the offer letter, which they are about to receive soon from the Ministry of
Local Government. No youth will benefit from this land,” the letter read in
part.
The letter claimed the provincial youth leaders in
Mashonaland West were using the Zanu PF youth league to get the land, which
they will subdivide and sell to home-seekers.
“We are appealing to your high office, your excellency, to
intervene and stop this corrupt document (sic) and investigate how it managed
to sail through some stages,” reads the letter.
“ln 2020, does government still give vast tracts of land to
individuals for stand developments?”
It also emerged that some youth league officials in Harare
were using Zanu PF youth league WhatsApp platforms to advertise stands, some of
them in settlements that have been flagged as illegal by the government.
Some of the stands advertised on WhatsApp are in Hatcliffe
and Epworth. A Zanu PF youth league official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said some of the people advertising the stands were doing so on
behalf of known land barons.
“I know some of them as runners of a Zanu PF politician,
who sells urban land,” the official said. “There are Zanu PF youths run estate
companies with offices in Harare, who are the foot soldiers.”
Zanu PF director of information Tafadzwa Mugwadi had not
responded to questions about the letter to Mnangagwa at the time of going to
print, but he distanced the party from land barons.
“Zanu PF, for the record, is not working with and has never
worked with any land baron or baroness,” Mugwadi said.
“We are the ruling party and the Ministry of National
Housing and Social Amenities is naturally convenient to us for such purposes
such that the party has no need to work with third parties to attend to housing
needs of our people.”
Marian Chombo, the Local Government deputy minister, said
Mnangagwa’s administration would deal harshly with land barons.
“Huge amounts of money are lost to these people,” Chombo
said. “Indeed they try and approach various government offices in an effort to
sanitise or regularise their illegal activities.
“Government does not allocate land after it has been
illegally parcelled out. “The party has not encouraged anybody to distribute
stands.”
She said beneficiaries of land allocations in urban areas
should always check with the department of state land in her ministry to verify
the authenticity of cooperatives.
“No land will ever get a development permit without the
input of the department of state land, which would verify the correct ownership
before subdivision,” Chombo added.
“Land barons have no future in this new dispensation.”
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