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Columbus Mabika-Features Writer
In the past decade, 60-year-old James Jena, of Jena village in rural Seke district outside the dormitory town of Chitungwiza, some 35 km north of the capital Harare, has seen an urban set-up sprawl through illegal land sales by traditional leaders and their subjects.
Jena has watched pastures shrink and a depleted cattle herd in the whole district.
Illegal land sales have also been rampant in other districts surrounding Harare chiefly Domboshava, Goromonzi and Marondera.
In a desperate measure to earn some money, villagers and their leaders have resorted to subdividing homesteads and selling off pieces of family land and pastures to desperate land seekers from Chitungwiza and Harare.
The demand for residential stands has escalated in recent times as people seek to buy cheap land and avoid exorbitant rentals charged by house owners in towns and cities.
The desperation for land among urban dwellers has been met by an equally desperate need for income among villagers around Harare.
In the end, the illegal land sales have consumed land reserves for future use, pastures and infrastructure such as dip tanks and community gardens.
A survey conducted by The Herald in Seke yesterday revealed that residents are making a killing from subdividing their land and selling it to buyers from major cities.
In an astonishing move, a dip tank ground in Rusirevi Village has been subdivided into stands, leaving the villagers without anywhere to dip their livestock.
Thomas Chibage, a villager in Chibage village told The Herald that he subdivided his homestead into three parts and has already sold two pieces of land, earning US$4 800 in the process.
An area the size of 700-800 square meters is being sold for about US$2 000. The same piece of land costs more than US$20 000 in the capital Harare and its environs.
“I would call this a blessing in disguise, life has been hard for many rural folks to the extent that some have even struggled to raise money for the most basic necessities. So having people willing to buy land from us is a prayer answered for both parties,” said Chibage.
Jena, who used to have 25 head of cattle, but now makes do with none, confirmed the illegal land sales had consumed land reserves, pastures and reduced the dignity of villages.
“There is hardly any more grazing land for our cattle, so we don’t have a choice anymore,” he said. “Our land has been taken over by people from the city who are buying plots and building houses. Above all, the dignity of our villages has been eroded, look now even a Chisi (rest day) is no longer being adhered to, our sacred places have been destroyed.”
For Seke villagers, the receding pastures are not their only problem.
Traditional leaders empowered to distribute land to members of their communities are reducing the sizes of plots to sell parts of the land to buyers from Chitungwiza and Harare for personal profit.
“It seems we will soon end up as backyard tenants in the land of our ancestors,” said Jena. “Our headmen are the main culprits as they are enriching themselves at the expense of the villagers by selling the land that is supposed to belong to us as a community.
“Our children have nowhere to go and end up cramped on our homesteads. It seems we will soon end up as backyard tenants in the land of our ancestors.”
As a result of the widespread sale of land in the district by headmen and their subjects, Jena said, villagers have reduced space to plant crops and engage in market gardening, particularly the production of green vegetables and tomatoes that provide extra income to local families.
A headman who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation, said traditional leaders were selling State land in Seke and the unplanned encroachment into rural areas was worrisome.
“The situation has become common in rural areas that border cities and towns and seems to be getting out of hand,” he said.
“Most of my colleagues, the traditional leaders, are conniving with chiefs and district administrators to grab land from helpless villagers, and of major concern is the fact that this is making rural dwellers poorer while a few individuals get richer.
“There is no doubt that cities like Harare and Chitungwiza have serious housing problems, but it is not acceptable to change land use without following proper procedures. Nobody now knows what the future of our subjects, the majority of whom who relied on communal farming, will hold.”
Some of the people buying rural land in rural areas surrounding the cities of Harare and Chitungwiza are also doing so for commercial purposes.
Talkmore Zvandasara (56) a senior bank employee in the capital, runs a thriving piggery project on two hectares that he bought three years ago from a headman in Seke.
He has built a small cottage for two workers who tend his pigs, as well as pens and water reservoirs occupying slightly under a hectare.
He has reserved the rest of the land for chicken farming and a fish pond.
His plot is one of the numerous pieces of land that extend into what used to be grazing wetlands.
“The purchase of this land was done secretly because it is illegal. The headman claimed to the chief that I am his nephew who was desperate for land and, in that regard, I am covered,” said Zvandasara, whose pigs number more than 500.
He paid US$4,000 for the plot, he revealed.
The headman, he said, persuaded the two families that occupied the land to move to a smaller space on the outskirts of the village, where the soil is sandy and therefore unproductive.
For generations, surplus land has long been held in custody by the traditional leaders to distribute to expanding families among local communities.
But growing demand for accommodation from nearby urban areas has turned places like Seke into a sprawling residential areas for urban dwellers.
Villagers and headmen seem not bothered by the illegality of their actions.
Rural land falls under the communal land tenure system and is administered under the system of customary land tenure.
Statutes on land and settlement, on the one hand, and those on local customs and tradition, on the other, legally constitute a structure that regulates access to land in these areas.
Chief Seke, Mr Stanely Chimanikire, could not be contacted for comment, but he was once quoted by The Herald as saying: “Seke has been urbanised and there has been electrification of the community and as a chief my role is to provide solutions to problems bedevilling the people.
“There has been invasion of culture, rampant and illegal sales of land by people bent on fattening their pockets to the disadvantage of the people. We will not be deterred by anything, but the only option is to adopt a professional approach on all issues with advice coming from family members and headmen.”
Online Reporter