THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission last week launched a five-day campaign targeting illegal parcelling out of State and communal land by barons.
The campaign, which ran under the theme, Campaign Against Illegal Parcelling out of State and Communal Land, began in Seke district as the anti-graft body prioritised public education, which it sees as a bulwark against land corruption.
Land barons have been causing havoc in urban areas, fleecing desperate home-seekers amid claims that most of the perpetrators of land theft are riding on the coattails of senior Zanu PF politicians.
Land barons are usually politically connected, powerful, self-proclaimed illegal State land “authorities” who sell State land in and around urban areas without accounting for the proceeds, according to a report by the Justice Uchena Commission on the illegal sale of State land.
Critics say the long arm of the law has not stretched enough to catch land barons who appear to have been given carte blanche to fleece desperate home-seekers.
Some home-seekers have lost thousands of dollars to unscrupulous land barons. Others had their properties demolished by local authorities on the basis that they were illegal settlers.
Last year, the government was forced to intervene as Harare embarked on a blitz to demolish more than 5 000 houses built in illegal settlements across the city.
While the settlers got reprieve, they are living on borrowed time after constructing houses on land reserved for essential public amenities and wetlands given that 37 High Court orders obtained by Harare City Council still exist.
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A 2019 commission of inquiry into the sale of State land in and around urban areas unearthed massive fraud and theft of State land valued at US$3 billion by top politicians and individuals in Zanu PF.
The inquiry revealed that the identification and occupation of farms in and around urban areas involved home-seekers and war veterans for agricultural purposes. This subsequently morphed into urban settlements and allocation to co-operatives, trusts and land developers by the Lands ministry and the Local Government ministry.
It also involved the creation of new urban settlements by aspiring or sitting Members of Parliament as a way of mobilising political support; abuse of political office in the allocation and appropriation of urban State land; and use of names of top ruling party leadership to exert undue influence on government institutions and processes.
The land baron menace must be tackled head-on to avoid further losses by desperate home-seekers.
The Local Government and Public Works ministry has unveiled a new policy, the Urban State land Management Policy, which seeks to provide an integrated one-stop policy and direction for all tiers of government mandated with State land management and administration, consistent with the devolution thrust of the second republic.
The policy seeks to enact legislation to criminalise unauthorised activities related to urban State land, including planning, surveying, valuation, servicing, sale and occupation, to deter land barons and other unscrupulous individuals from engaging in illicit practices.
We urge authorities to move with speed and arrest the land baron menace wreaking havoc in urban areas.
