Reprieve for indigenous farm owners

Indigenous farmers whose properties were acquired under the Government’s resettlement programme are set to either repossess their land or get compensation for their loss.

The push was made at the Zanu-PF 6th National People’s Congress that was held in Harare early this month.

The party said in the event the farms were not returned, the owners would be titled to compensation for both the land and improvements as provided for under Section 295 of the Constitution.

“The party strongly feels that such acquisition should not have been done as it is tantamount to taking land from an indigenous person to empower another.

“Hence, where practically possible, the indigenous persons should be given back their farms and people resettled thereon relocated,” said Zanu-PF lands, land reform and agriculture department in its report to the ruling party’s Central Committee.

The Congress also heard that 912 148 hectares of land in the country fall under private property and should not be acquired for resettlement purposes.

Land acquisition and resettlement from 1980 to date saw 14 483 583ha being acquired out of 15,5 million ha of available prime agricultural land.

Phase one of the resettlement programme (1980 to 1998) saw Government acquiring 3 498 444ha for resettlement of 71 000 families.

Phase two (1998 to 2000) saw the acquisition of 168 263 808ha to benefit 4 697 families.

The fast-track resettlement phase from 2000 to date resulted in 10 816 886ha of land going to 164 064 families.

This means some 250 000 families have been resettled, contrary to claims from anti-land reform quarters that only a few “well-connected” people had benefited from the programme.

The Zanu-PF Congress also heard that the issue of farms under bilateral investment promotion and protection agreements (BIPPAs) continues to be a cause for concern as Government was bound to compensate for both land and improvements in the event of acquisition of such properties.

A decision was taken by the party and Government to halt acquiring BIPPA-bound farms though those already acquired — totalling 258 —would remain State-owned.

“Of those 258 farms that were already acquired, a total of 197 were resettled either under A1 or A2 models and the beneficiaries would remain thereon,” states the report.

On the other hand, 18 289 offer letters and 145 775 A1 temporary permits have been issued since 2000.

Concerning security of tenure, 143 99-year leases were registered and issued to A2 farmers with eight having been submitted to the Deeds Registry for registration. Some 143 have already been registered.