Mnangagwa
recently announced a new land tenure programme that will see the issuance of
title deeds in place of 99-year leases and offer letters previously issued to
land owners.
He announced
the introduction of the Land Tenure Implementation Programme through a Cabinet
sitting in October 2024.
The President
later appointed Tagwirei, who is on the United States sanctions list for
alleged corruption, as the chairperson of the Land Tenure Implementation
Committee.
Under the
programme, land reform beneficiaries are expected to pay US$500 per hectare
levy.
Critics argue
that the State is transferring the historical responsibility to compensate
former white commercial farmers onto individual farmers, setting them for
failure.
On Saturday,
provincial executives of theLand Tenure Implementation Programme (ZNLWVA) met
in Bulawayo and resolved to challenge the ongoing land regularisation, where
selected banks foist loans on farmers to pay for the land.
War veterans
pushed back saying the State and its financially-connected Zanu PF elites want
to steal their land, first from the politics of seizing land and from the
financial capital generated by lending against it.
“The ZNLWVA
held a meeting in Bulawayo with chairpersons from all 10 provinces. The
gathering deliberated on urgent issues affecting veterans and the nation at
large,” ZNLWVA leader Andrease Mathibela said in a statement.
“Veterans must
urgently unite under the association’s collective leadership to end destructive
divisions that harm ordinary comrades.
“The
association will resist the selling of land, the sacred prize of the liberation
struggle, which must remain the heritage of all Zimbabweans.
“Every veteran
must be allocated not less than 100 hectares of agricultural land to sustain
livelihoods and support food security.”
On Friday,
outspoken war veteran Blessed “Bombshell” Geza also spoke out against
Mnangagwa’s land regularisation as a corrupt scam.
“And now, as if
the plunder is not enough, you attack the very heart of our liberation, the
land reform programme,” Geza said.
“We fought for
our land. Robert Mugabe redistributed it to war veterans and the landless
Zimbabweans.
“Yet you work
with Tagwirei to privatise it, using a dubious title deed scheme that will see
farmers lose what they bled for.”
Political
analyst Jealousy Mawarire also criticised the land regularisation exercise as a
scam meant to prejudice farmers for billions of dollars.
“The Land
Tenure Implementation Committee is an illegal entity . . . already collecting
money from farmers for land valuation on top of that demanded for title deed,
setting the farmers to default on the loans and lose their land to a bank owned
by the Sakunda proprietor,” he told NewsDay in an interview.
A group of war
veterans recently dragged Mnangagwa to court to challenge his land tenure
implementation programme, which is fronted by Tagwirei.
The
ex-combatants, through their War Veterans Pressure Group Trust, wanted the
court to declare Mnangagwa’s land tenure system unconstitutional.
In his founding
affidavit war veteran, Joseph Chinguwa said ex-combatants had been advised
during meetings that they ought to pay a fee for the land they occupied before
they could acquire title deeds.
“We, therefore,
seek a declarator to the fact that in respect of all agricultural land vested
in the State and that was acquired during the land reform programme, all title
deeds were cancelled by virtue of section 72(5) of the Constitution of
Zimbabwe,” Chinguwa said.
“We accept that
the State can alienate land. However, such alienation cannot be done without an
Act of Parliament defining the tenure system.
“We, therefore,
seek a declaratory order to the effect that agricultural land cannot be
alienated or privatised without the enactment of an Act of Parliament codified
in section 293(3) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.”
He argued that
Mnangagwa’s proposed land tenure system was unconstitutional.
“Section 291 of
the Constitution makes it clear that the Constitution is the supreme law of the
country and that any act of conduct inconsistent with the same is invalid to
that extend.
“The doctrine
of constitutional invalidity makes it clear that the exercise of power must be
governed by the law and that actions or activities that are not supported by
the law are ultra-vires.”
Mnangagwa
launched the US$500 per hectare levy for farmers with an offer letter, permit
or lease for agricultural purposes under the land tenure system.
The money will
be used to settle a US$3,5 billion debt owed to former white commercial
farmers.
Mnangagwa
signed a US$3,5 billion compensation agreement with the former white farmers in
2020.
His government
was then expected to issue long-term bonds and get help from donors to raise
the money for the compensation.
The government
has, however, been failing to raise the US$3 billion to compensate the former
white farmers until recently when it announced an initial pay-out of US$3
million. H Metro
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