Finalise land tenure crisis – CZI
Financial Gazette
6/3/2019
Paul Nyakazeya Online Editor
THE Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) says government should bring finality to the security of land tenure in order to promote investment in the agriculture sector.
This comes as land has no collateral value because of the 99-year leases imposed by government.
“We advise government to go into further dialogue with banks to find out why they are still lacking confidence in the land leases. Banks have shown reluctance in their approach towards the 99- lease document,” the business association. The lease agreement is a legally binding agreement between the government of Zimbabwe and A2 model beneficiary or farmer. However, farmers have raised concerns over the document, which lacks requisite features for it to be used as a form of collateral for borrowing from financial institutions.
CZI also highlighted concerns surrounding the latest disruptions and land occupations, especially in tea, sugar, forestry and corporate farming.
The warning by Zimbabwe’s largest industry body comes barely a few weeks after Finance minister Mthuli Ncube conceded that government created a dead asset by failing to re-establish a land market.
“We created a dead asset from land. We need to sort out the issue of 99-year leases and also sort out issues relating to farmer compensation for improvements. We have done a valuation for nine provinces so far and we want to give our land a commercial and market value,” he said.
The land audit is expected to flush out multiple farm owners and unproductive farmers and redistribute the land to competent people.
Ncube indicated that land with a market value also had collateral worth, so money can be loaned to every land owner who can work well enough to pay back the lender. This unlocks the imagination and resourcefulness of borrowers.
In his 2019 National Budget last year in November, the Treasury boss said the government was committed to finalising the issue of compensation to former white farm owners who were affected by the land reform programme, in accordance with the country’s law and commitments under the various bilateral agreements.He said government had put in place structures to determine the extent of its obligations and this should be finalised this year.
“In the interim, the 2019 Budget proposes to avail $53 million towards payment of compensation to former white farm owners, whose disbursement will be targeted,” Ncube said.
The Commercial Farmers Union, a grouping of mainly white farmers in Zimbabwe, said only 300 white farmers have accepted the government’s compensation offers.