Investigations into the criminal gangs forging fake offer letters for resettlement farms are uncovering the rural equivalent of the land barons that have caused so much heartache in urban areas, especially Harare Metropolitan province.

There are differences, the major one being that while the urban land barons were aided and abetted, and even joined, by councillors and officials in the urban councils as well as some central Government politicians and officials, the rural gangs are being hunted down by the new-look Second Republic officials who have the final say on farm allocations.

At the same time those hit by the gangs are fighting back.

Farms may well be downsized in the growing and effective programme to sort out the downside in land reform, and some people may lose their original allocation because they have done absolutely nothing since being granted land or were involved in cheating, or managed to get themselves multiple allocations.

But any decision to reduce an allocation to what a farmer can use properly or to withdraw an offer letter entirely will be done properly with everything recorded, everything on paper and the correct administrative procedures followed.

The Second Republic has already shown that the cowboy set ups and favouritism it inherited in some cases cannot be tolerated. In other words, someone legally farming cannot lose their land without being told and without discussion.

A farmer cannot wake up one morning and find the farm has been cut up and chunks taken away for allocation to people now moving in.

This is why those farmers who suddenly find what amount to squatters moving in do involve the land officials promptly and do use the correct channels to get the squatters off.

At the same time a fairly complex administrative process has been put in place to allocate resettlement land that may become available, one that involves people applying and being vetted.

At the same time the allocation process, which can only benefit those whose applications have been vetted and approved, starts at district level when land has been properly identified and demarcated.

The recommendations then go up to the provincial level, where totally different people examine them closely, a process that can do a lot to stop any weird or irrational decisions at the district level. This in effect is the first audit in the process. But the provincial lists then move up to the Lands Ministry head office, where again there are checks.

By the time the draft offer letter reaches the Minister he can be sure that a proper system has overseen the process.

The present Minister, Dr Anxious Masuka, has been insisting that everything is done properly, legally and in line with the tightened administrative procedures he is determined to enforce.

One unexpected problem has arisen. There appears to be a fairly significant group of people who believe that corruption still exists and they can jump queues, gain favourable treatment and generally gain benefits they may not be entitled to by paying a bribe.

This belief is what allows the gangs to operate.

The atrocious examples set in urban areas fuelled that belief and there have been allegations that this practice was present in rural areas, with cases of abuse of office by some responsible for allocations showing favouritism.

The fact that some people did get more than they were entitled to because they could work connections shows that.

But what is more difficult to understand is why people assume this system could operate within the Second Republic, where it has been made plain by President Mnangagwa downwards that corruption will not be tolerated and corrupt officials are arrested and fired.

We have already seen some of those who decided to offer bribes then making the checks and finding the records of allocations cannot be “fixed” and that they have wasted their money and been cheated by a criminal.

At the moment legal action is not being taken against those who did offer or pay bribes, although they are expected to be very co-operative in the investigations to hunt down the criminals and forgers, giving full details of who they were dealing with, and then turn up in court as witnesses.

This is quite legal. Some became involved because they genuinely thought they were paying required fees or even buying land that was allocated to a fake co-operative.

But even these need to come forward and give evidence so that at least they have a chance of getting their money back.

The fight against corruption is not just jailing those who take bribes, as some assume, but also getting everyone to understand that a bribed official cannot actually do anything and so if someone is demanding a bribe they are almost certainly a conman outside the system using a computer to generate forged documents.

It would be useful all round if those approached for a bribe made their police report. In the odd case it might be a dishonest official but in almost all cases it will be a smooth-talking salesperson for a criminal gang.

In either case the police can do their job and remove the person from circulation.

We are seeing a lot more of this, and not just in land issues. The police themselves are now taking effective action against those officers who seek bribes for even minor traffic offences, but they still need someone to tell them what is going on so that they can set the traps and do the searches to gain evidence.

Some people now carry the police complaints number on their phone, so they can make instant reports, but even just pulling your phone out in these circumstances causes a sudden retreat.

The point we are making is that the Second Republic is very serious about corruption, so even those who are exceptionally irritated by the sometimes cumbersome official processes, and are tempted when a smooth talker turns up offering a short-cut, need to understand that the processes are there precisely to prevent corruption and just slog their way through the rules.

And report the criminals why they at it. That way you are not cheated and you help the rest of us by sending the conman to the cells.