Offer letters withdrawn
RICHARD CHIDZA
Senior Reporter-
Government will accept money from eternal foe and former colonial master, Britain, to undertake a land audit in order to “normalise” the situation on the farms, Land minister Douglas Mombeshora said on Monday.
Mombeshora told journalists at a press briefing in Harare, ahead of the launch of a new Model A1 permit by President Robert Mugabe later this week, that at least 221 000 offer letters issued over the past 15 years would be rendered useless.
“We have worked with the European Union, so what we have said is we will not allow them to conduct the land audit, but if they want to give us money then we will gladly accept, even the British if they want to fund the programme, we are fine with that,” Mombeshora said.
Relations between Zimbabwe and its erstwhile colonial master Britain turned sour following Mugabe’s decision to embark on the land redistribution exercise to correct colonial land imbalances in which less that 5000 commercial white farmers owned 80% or the country’s arable agricultural land.
Britain had at independence in 1980 promised to fund the redistribution of land, but even after a land conference in 1998, reneged on its promise leaving Mugabe with no option to pacify a restive population following the collapse of the willing buyer-willing seller policy.
The land audit, the minister said, would correct anomalies.
“We have detected anomalies, including the reported case of a 10-year-old allocated land. There are not many of them, but from the sample we were looking at, I personally picked it up and that is what we are saying we need to correct,” Mombeshora said.
He said the audit would “flush” out the anomalies, adding that the issue of the land audit would be a massive exercise that could take at least three years.
“We also took a sample of identity numbers and send them to the Registrar General’s office to check if the names corresponded with these numbers. We realised some do not, the numbers belong to other people hence we need to find out whether we were given the wrong information or it is something else,” Mombeshora said. “We are all aware there have been people who were arrested for selling land and I am warning anyone who has bought land under these circumstances that they will lose. It will be like buying stolen property.”
The land reform exercise is replete with reports of multiple land ownership, particularly by politicians and government officials, some for speculative purposes.
Critics have also pressured government to issue bankable title deeds to new land owners, but this has been shot down.
Mombeshora said the land redistribution exercise despite its shortcomings has been the most successful black economic empowerment programme carried out in Zimbabwe thus far.
“It is by far the most successful and we need to be cognisant of the fact that there was bound to be teething problems such as a dip in production levels,” said Mamboshera. “For example, at its peak tobacco production before the land exercise topped 220 million kilogrammes, dropped to a mere 20 million kilogrammes at the peak of the programme, but now this year it has hit over 200 million kilogrammes and this with no less than 67 000 farmers compared with what we had before the programme.”
He added: “We take criticism against the programme positively, but obviously there are some people just bend on demonising the government.”
According to Mombeshora, the new permit would replace offer letters or documents that were being issued by district administrators, which he said were not systematic.
“We did not have a uniform document and that created problems. The one that we are now issuing will be signed by the beneficiary who can use it to borrow for agricultural purposes. I cannot say though whether our financial institutions will offer funding because what we have done is create a tenure document that confirms ownership for an unlimited time,” he said. “The beneficiaries can use improvements on the plot and the improvements will also be paid for in the event of a cancellation or the beneficiary opting out of the land.”
He explained that cancellation will only happen if beneficiaries’ violate the terms of the permit issued under the Agricultural Land Resettlement Act Chapter (20:01) in conjunction with Statutory Instrument 53 of 2014.
“Breaches to the permit such as sub-letting, allowing the agricultural land or pastoral operations to decline to unacceptable levels or abandonment will result in the permit being cancelled, but we will issue a 90-day notice in which the beneficiary can provide representations on why we should not cancel,” the minister said.
He added that the permits can be inherited and women have a right to own land and will also be given the new tenure document.