Beverly Bizeki

With hundreds of people being hauled to court everyday over illegal settlements across the country as part of the ‘Operation Order No To Land Barons’ evidence coming from the Ministry of Lands Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development indicates that traditional leaders have no mandate to distribute state or communal land.
Representing the ministry in a case against 11 illegal settlers from Mushandike Resettlement Village 18A and 19B who are facing charges of contravening section 3(1) of the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act Chapter 20:28 of the said act before Masvingo Magistrate Linet Mudzingo on January 26, Masvingo District Chief Lands Officer Takunda Chikura said it was illegal when local leaders are involved in parceling out state land.
“When councilors and traditional leaders are involved in land distribution it becomes illegal. Only the minister through the ministry has the right to allocate state land and council has the right to parcel communal land,” said Chikura.
Chikura further said three documents were required for one to be considered a legal settler on a piece of land.
“As mentioned in the Gazetted Land (consequential provisions) Act Chapter 20:28 one must have papers given to them from the ministry and these are an offer letter, or a permit or a land settlement lease and when these are offered the register updated which is not the case with some of you here,” said Chikura.
Chikura also said have the cards that some of the people have in possession of were only development levy cards from council which do not make them eligible land owners. He also further stated that those who are given land rights are only given user rights and not ownership rights.
In Masvingo province over 560 people have been arrested so far for illegally occupying state land and many village heads have been nabbed as the land barons behind this menace.
A number of traditional leaders mainly village heads have been dragged to court together with their subjects whom they would have allocated land.
The operation started on January 10, 2024 and is continuing to February 9 with the aim to restore sanity in communal lands in Zimbabwe.
The 11 accused persons’ trial was postponed to a later date.

Beatific Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI Town Council management recently clashed with councilors in a full council meeting after management pushed councilors to pass a resolution to purchase four SUVs for Departmental Heads as part of their conditions of services with what councilors believed was an inflated figure than that was initially budgeted for in 2024 budget yet to be approved by the Minister of Local Government Public works.
Councillors Philimon Muchaendepi and Jameson Charumbira refused to pass the resolution with what they said was an inflated amount, saying they could only pass one with figures tallying what was budgeted for in the 2024 budget.
The full council went on to shelve the resolution to borrow USD$278 116.00 from the Estate Account into the corporate account earmarked for the purchase of the vehicles.
Giving her presentation, Finance and General Purpose Committee Chairperson, Vimbai Ushe proposed the resolution, awaiting adoption by the council, to seeking cabinet approval for the purchase of four senior management vehicles with a figure higher than the one budgeted for in the 2024 budget.
“The Finance Committee resolved to seek cabinet approval for the purchase of four senior management vehicles which is part of their conditions of services,” said Ushe
The audit committee Chairperson Councillor Sekai Njanjure then rose to oppose the committee resolution saying the figures being proposed were different from those budgeted for in the 2024 and said it was wise for council to wait for the approval of the budget before purchasing the vehicles.
“We are now confused. The figures that are being proposed here are different from the ones we budgeted for in the 2024 budget. I think we should wait for the approval of the budget in order to be guided accordingly,” said Njanjure.
Councilor Muchaendepi then openly disclosed that council budgeted the purchase of the Town Secretary’s vehicle at a cost of US$85 000 in the 2024 budget which is now contradicting with the proposed one of US$115 000,00.
“The figures that we budgeted for in the 2024 budget are not tallying with the ones being proposed here. For instance the Town Secretary’s Vehicle was budgeted for US$85 000.00 but now we are being forced to make a resolution of the inflated figure raised to US$115 000.00,” said Muchaendepi.
However, Chiredzi Town Council Secretary, Engineer Wesley Kauma said the vehicles were part of the conditions of service for the employees in order to motivate them in executing their duties properly.
“These are the conditions of service, can they only be implemented after we have managed to complete all the pending projects, which is impossible to complete. If that is the case, we can work with that,” said Engineer Kauma.
Councilors said there was need for better service delivery before the purchase of the vehicles.
Council Chairperson Jameson Charumbira, closed the debate by highlighting that a proposal to buy management vehicles with figures tallying with those in the budget be send to the responsible Minister for approval and shelved a proposal to borrow money from the estate account into the corporate account in order to purchase the vehicles.
“Let’s shelve a resolution to borrow from the Estate account while we recommend to seek cabinet approval for the purchase of management vehicles using the budgeted figures,” said Charumbira.
On December 20, 2023, Chiredzi Town Council held a special full council meeting at Beitbridge Summit Hotel where they agreed to sell the Chairperson’s vehicle at book price to Alderman Gibson Hwende as well as adopting the model conditions of service of urban local authority in terms of section 123 (1) c of the Urban Councils Act Chapter 29:15 subject to registration in terms of section (3) of the Labour Act Chapter 28.01 and also conditions of service for Town Secretary subject to approval by the responsible Minister.

…who stands to lose more?

…village heads sacrificed as real land barons go scot-free

By Brighton Chiseva

MASVINGO – Traditional leaders heavily criticized the on-going ‘Operation Order No to Land Barons’ being implemented by the Ministry of Lands in collaboration with local council, police and other stakeholders saying it’s only sacrificing villagers and their village heads while the real land barons in the country go scot-free.
This comes after police has so far arrested over 500 villagers and village heads in Masvingo province for allegedly being allocated pieces of land in restricted areas and selling state or council land respectively.
Local chiefs however condemned government for implementing the project without their involvement, only to hear about it later that their subjects were being arrested notwithstanding that they are the custodians of land and culture.
Chief Bere born Phinias Tafireyi lashed out at the implementing authority saying they invaded his area without consulting him and went on to arrest people who were legally settled leaving those who were illegally placed by rival chiefs.
“The programme that was initiated by the President is noble but it has been hijacked by crooks who are implementing it in a wrong way. How can they come to my area of jurisdiction without my knowledge? I am the one who knows illegal settlers and those who are not.
“Right now they are displacing and arresting people who we placed legally, since the resuscitation of our chieftaincy, we have been settling people just like any other chief, if you go to Chief Nyakunhuwa, you will see there are people who have been staying in the area for years without any document, so what is different from Chief Bere?” fumed Bere.
He went on to say he has since approached the police and other stakeholders to raise concern over the matter and said they were all blaming each other.
“I want you to ask the police, EMA or DDC if they ever approached me over the issue, I was supposed to go with them and help them identify the illegal settlers. I even went on to see them but they are simply accusing each other.
“The whole process was manipulated and now those being placed by bogus village heads and chiefs in my area are being left whilst our people are being arrested,” Bere said.
Chief Murinye born Ephias Munodawafa said there were many illegal settlers in his area but attributed the challenge to the missing boundary line between Chiefs around the Great Zimbabwe Monuments area, saying other chiefs were settling people in other Chiefs’ areas as a way of expanding their territories, leaving him without authority over such.
“We have a lot of illegal settlers in my area but that is mainly caused by the absence of boundaries, so what happens is that another chief claims that a certain area is his, then he installs a village head who goes on to parcel land to fellow clansmen.
“Maybe they think when the time comes for demarcation boundaries they will ask where one belongs and the people’s number will be enough to be another chief’s area of jurisdiction. However, I believe they will simply trace history and give each chief his mandated area,” said Murinye.
Murinye has been at loggerheads with his neighbor Chief Mugabe and their people clash from time to time over the boundary issue.
On his part, Chief Mugabe born Matubede Mudavanhu concurred with Murinye over the boundary issue and urged government to address the challenge saying that would easily help stop illegal settlers.
He also said though he was not informed of the operation, he heard that several people were being arrested. He indicated that he was going to have a meeting with village heads to understand what was happening, calling upon implementing authorities to work with Chiefs when carrying out such programmes.
“I was not informed of the programme, I just heard people were being arrested and I am organizing a meeting with my headmen and village heads to understand what is going on,” he said.
He concurred with Murinye on boundary issues saying they were supposed to be drawn as soon as possible if they are to stop illegal settlers.
“The major reason behind these illegal settlements are boundaries, we don’t even know where the boundary between Mugabe and Nemamwa or Charumbira is, and this has led to village heads giving out land to people to secure their areas. So we plead with government to address the issue as a matter of urgency,” said Mugabe.
Chief Chitanga real name Feleni Chauke said he was not consulted also and saying he only heard about the programme from others and is not aware if there are any victims in his area.
People have been asking the logic behind the move especially in resuscitated chieftaincy who are calling the displaced relatives back and are now called illegal settlers.
Some victims around Chief Charumbira and Bere areas said the government was neglecting them after soliciting for votes from them and said if elections were to come any time soon they would not vote for Zanu PF.
“They want us when they want our votes and now that the election is over they are now treating us like trash. What is the logic in displacing us now when we have more than 2o years here, if we were illegal why didn’t they tell us when we settled here,” said one victim.
One teacher from Mushandike School said the evictions in village 15 were psychologically affecting learners and the effects can be felt in class since some families were given a few days to leave.
However, the Permanent Secretary in the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Dr Addmore Pazvakavambwa said the programme was ongoing and a number of arrests have been made but the police has full information on the arrests.
He said the land barons’ menace was not peculiar to Masvingo Province but the whole country and the programme was part of government’s intervention which is targeting those without requisite paperwork.
“This is the government’s intervention on the illegal settlement problem across the country, what is happening is, the operation is targeting those without requisite paperwork to show whether they are legally settled or not.
“So the issue has nothing to do with chieftaincy boundaries because the country has ways for people to acquire land, so if the procedures are not followed then one will be arrested. However, the advantage is that they are being allowed to go to court where they can defend themselves so no one is being disadvantaged if they are legally settled and can prove that in court then there is nothing to worry about,” said Dr Pazvakavambwa.
He said the programme also involve other departments like EMA which, if people are settled in areas that cause environmental damage are also being asked to leave.
“The programme involves other departments like the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) so if one is staying in a wetland or a river catchment area then they have to be evacuated and that has nothing to do with how many years you have been staying there or who gave you the land.
“The operation doesn’t care who gave you the land as long as proper procedures are not followed one will be evicted. The procedure is that if its agricultural land one gets through lands and if it’s residential land the one goes to the local authority. So I want to warn those who haven’t been approached to make sure they have the required documents to avoid inconveniences,” said Dr Pazvakavambwa.
He went on to say all those with complaints should approach the lands office or their local authorities saying those offices were ready to assist in that regard.