Online Reporter
Precious Manomano
Herald Reporter
TRADITIONAL leaders who illegally sell State land will be arrested, prosecuted and could face imprisonment, Government has warned, following a surge in unlawful land transactions particularly in areas surrounding Harare Metropolitan.
The warning comes amid growing concern over a practice in which some village heads and other traditional leaders were abusing their authority by allocating and selling communal land to unsuspecting buyers, often without any legal documentation or approval from the State.
Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Permanent Secretary Professor Obert Jiri said Government is determined to stamp out the illegal practice, which is undermining orderly land management and exposing communities to exploitation.
“Traditional leaders do not have the authority to sell State land,” Prof Jiri said, stressing that communal land is held in trust by the State and must be administered strictly within the law.
He said investigations had revealed that rogue traditional leaders are allocating communal land parcels informally, issuing handwritten allocation notes or verbal assurances, and demanding payment from desperate land seekers.
In many cases, the illegal transactions are facilitated through middlemen or land barons who target urban residents, civil servants and the diaspora community, falsely claiming the land is secure and will later be regularised.
The practice has been rampant around peri-urban areas such as Seke, Domboshava and other zones near major cities, where demand for land is high.
He said some traditional leaders manipulate their positions of trust to exploit people seeking land for housing or farming, even though the land remains State-owned and cannot be privately sold.
“Leaders who engage in these practices have been warned. It has been declared criminal and warrants arrest.”
Prof Jiri said such conduct not only violates the law but also amounts to a betrayal of the trust communities place in traditional leadership.
To acquire land legally, he said, strict procedures must be followed.
“If anyone is desperate for land, they should follow due process. This includes applying to the Minister of Lands, who has the authority to allocate land on behalf of the President. Any unauthorised attempts to sell or parcel out agricultural land are strictly forbidden,” he said.
“No agricultural land can be parcelled out to anyone outside this legal framework.”
Prof Jiri warned that many people, including Zimbabweans living in the diaspora, had lost large sums of money after being duped into buying communal land that cannot be legally titled.
