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Vision 2030
Allen Choruma
Agriculture is the backbone of Zimbabwe’s economy and we cannot talk about Vision 2030 if we do not comprehensively address the teething problems inherent in the land tenure system.
As an agro-based economy, our economic growth and development is dependent on agriculture.
Agriculture is as critical to Zimbabwe as the central nervous system is to human beings.
The majority of Zimbabweans live in the rural areas and derive their livelihood and income from agriculture-related economic activities.
According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), agricultural activities provide employment and income for between 60 and 70 percent of Zimbabwe’s population, supplies 60 percent of raw materials required by industry and contributes 40 percent of total export earnings.
Agriculture, even in its current depressed state, contributes about 17 to 20 percent to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Land policy framework
Despite the importance of agriculture to Zimbabwe’s economic development, we do not have a consolidated, coherent, and comprehensive national policy framework that currently addresses all the land issues in one document.
We have a number of Government policies that deal with agriculture, including the Zimbabwe Agricultural Policy Framework (1995-2020), the Transitional Stabilisation Plan (TSP) and the National Budget 2020, among others.
In my opinion, we need a Consolidated National Land Policy Framework (CNLPF).
The CNLPF should address the following 15 key areas:
- Land tenure systems and their harmonisation.
- Security of land tenure.
- Consolidation and harmonisation of land regulatory framework, that is a Land Act.
- Establishment of a Land Court (to deal with all land disputes) and safeguard the rule of law and foster administrative justice system.
- Strengthening of Land Commission (established under section 296 of the Constitution) and ensuring it executes its mandate effectively and transparently.
- Land audits to ensure equitable distribution of land and curtail multiple land ownership.
- Women’s rights to land, that is, ensuring women have access to land and that their rights to land are safeguarded.
- Regularisation of informal and unplanned land occupation in peri-urban areas.
- Funding of agriculture — Access to funding, especially by small farmers, to promote agricultural productivity and food security.
- Technical Support Services in terms of Agricultural Extension Services.
- Foreign Ownership of Land (Bilateral Investment Protection Agreements (BIPAs) protection to promote FDI in agriculture.
- Environmental protection and sustainable use of land.
- Repossession of land and compensation.
- Restoration of rule of law (law and order).
- Upholding the provisions of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (safeguarding of property and human rights).
The above 15 key issues are not in any order of priority or importance. Some of the above issues are briefly discussed below.
Land tenure
The land is our national heritage and as such, all Zimbabweans irrespective of race, colour, creed, religion, gender, social status, political party affiliation and so on, should have access to use of land.
Section 289 (b) of the Constitution clearly states that every Zimbabwean has the right to acquire, hold, occupy, use, transfer, lease and dispose of agricultural land.
The proposed land policy framework should clearly address the following land tenure issues:
l How people secure access to land and land resources.
l Who can hold and use land and its resources and under what terms and conditions.
l Longevity of use of land (length of leases).
l Transfer of land and inheritance.
l Determination of size of land holdings.
l Securitisation of land, that is use of land as collateral.
l Security of tenure.
l Repossession of land and compensation.
l Dispute resolution mechanisms.
Security of land tenure
One of the biggest challenges that we face in Zimbabwe over land issues is the security of land tenure.
Security of land tenure simply refers to the right to own the land, occupy, use, use profits, retain occupation for specified time, prevent summary repossession of land, use land as collateral, cede land to successors on death as the case may be, without fear that the land may be arbitrarily or summarily withdrawn by the Government.
Security of land tenure in Zimbabwe is threatened by some elements who fail to uphold the rule of law.
There are cases where laws have been broken by some people who abuse political muscle.
These people need to be prosecuted.
In relation to the land redistribution program, security of land tenure should offer protection to people allocated land within defined legal parameters.
People allocated land should not be victimised or prevented from exercising their rights to land on the basis of gender, religion and political affiliation, etc.
Land, which has been allocated to people, should only be withdrawn under most extreme and exceptional cases which should be clearly spelt out in a legal land policy legislation/framework to ensure transparency and protection of rights of land owners/users.
If people allocated land are not given security of tenure, they will not invest long term in the land, fearing they might lose their investments.
Land audit
A national land audit, which is currently underway, should be conducted without fear, favour or bias.
The audit should be completed quickly and the findings of the land audit should be tabled before Parliament, and the results made public for the sake of transparency.
The advantages of a land audit exercise are as follows:
l Ensures transparency in the land distribution/allocation exercise.
l Curbs multiple farm ownership.
l Ensures that no land remains utilised.
l Enables efficient planning and allocation of resources.
l Ensures checks and balances and accountability.
Allen Choruma can be contacted on email: [email protected]
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