Zimpapers Logo

We are likely to witness two significant developments this week, both relating to the national land policy. In the Midlands Province, the government will launch a programme to downsize farms to bring them in tune with the maximum farm size policy. The redrawing of boundaries of dozens of farms in that province would free up approximately 80,000 hectares which would be redistributed to the landless. Some, mainly Zanu-PF leaders, former ministers and senior government officials in the province were recently named as holding farms as large as 2,000ha, much of it only kept for sentimental purposes and hollow prestige.

Also this week, the government is expected to complete drafting the Land Commission Bill, a proposed law that would create the Zimbabwe Land Commission to be charged with resolving boundary disputes and undertaking land audits to curb multiple farm ownership and help authorities to understand the level of utilisation of land.

Both are very important and are likely to ensure more fairness in land ownership, further democratise access to and ownership of this critical resource and stimulate its greater utilisation. We recognise that the fine-tuning was inevitable given that ours was a revolutionary land reclamation and redistribution exercise. The processes were conducted rapidly and there was always that reality that, while the fundamental goal of decolonising the land was immediately achieved, a few concomitant loose ends still had to be tied later on.

On maximum farm sizes, we applaud the political leadership in the Midlands for raising the issue a few weeks ago and putting in motion a process to address it. The land issue has been a permanent rallying point for the masses since white invasion of this country in 1890. Wars were fought not only for political independence, but also for more equitable access to land. Thousands suffered and died for this. It was going to be an irony of ironies that such a critical resource would, after being liberated in the Third Chimurenga, be monopolised, rather annexed once again, not by whites, but by the elite among the indigenous people.

It is encouraging that, 15 years after the launch of the revolutionary land reform and redistribution exercise action begins to repossess excess land from those literally sitting on it. The 80,000ha to be reclaimed is a lot of land where hundreds would be resettled if the maximum farm size of not more than 500ha per A2 beneficiary is adhered to as must be the case. If the land is to be allocated to people under the A1 model up to 16,000 can benefit.

The farm downsizing programme begins in the Midlands and should shortly after, be extended to other provinces. The government would acquire more land and more landless families will benefit.

We don’t anticipate resistance. We already have a legal framework empowering the government to conduct the programme. Statutory Instrument 419 of 1999, sets out the maximum permissible land sizes per natural region while in terms of Statutory Instrument 288 of 2000, land cannot be transferred unless there is conformity with the Maximum Farm Size Regulation.

There indeed has been a radical variation on the maximum farm sizes permitted under the 2000 regulations from the new ones spelt out by the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora.

The stipulated maximum farm sizes contained in the Statutory Instrument 288 of 2000 are 250ha for agro-ecological region one, 350ha for region 2A, 400ha for A2, 500ha for region three, 1,500ha for region four and 2,000ha for region five. Now, the ceiling ranges from 250ha for region one to 500ha in region five.

We note a drastic reduction in farm sizes in relation to drier regions with the wetter ones remaining at 250ha. If the government reduces the size of properties in the wetter regions too, that would help make more land available to the 500,000 people on the national waiting list.

On the Zimbabwe Land Commission mandate of preventing multiple farm ownership, there is more commitment in the government to decisively deal with the challenge. We recall that President Mugabe has on several occasions publicly rebuked multiple farm owners and ordered them to give some up. Many heard, but did not respond. Backed by a specific piece of legislation, the government would be able to force the stiff-necked to submit this time around.

But the Zimbabwe Land Commission will only succeed if it is sufficiently resourced. At least $35 million is required for one comprehensive audit. The government does not have that money yet so the United Nations Development Programme was roped in to assist. This is cause for some discomfort.

However, the UNDP successfully funded our constitution-making exercise. It showed that with clear laid-down parameters, the world body can be of great help. They can do that again now, but the sustainable approach is for national resources to be spent on anything to do with the land question.