Land related corrup on in BackgroundZimbabwe Manase Kudzai Chiweshe
Chinhoyi University of Technology Land remains an emo ve and polarising feature of the Zimbabwean socio-poli cal landscape Corrup on is broadly defined in this study as the inten onal misperformance or neglect of a recognized duty or the unwarranted exercise of power with the mo ve of gaining some advantage more or less directly personal. Zimbabwe Emphasis on power by the micro physics element of power which makes corrup on the property of rela onships Different types - pe y, poli cal - patronage, grand, nepo sm Difficult to research and provide factual figures on the extent of corrup on
Corrup on Opportuni es Communal Land
• Abuse of power by village heads, chiefs and Rural District Councils through their explicit and tacit par cipa on in illegal land sales – ILLEGAL because communal land cannot be transacted with. There are no tles changing hands. • Lack of set standards for transparent and accountable applica on in land alloca on • Increase in land sales especially in areas close to urban centres (Domboshava for instance) with contested results within families; changing landscape of peri urban areas e.g Seke, specula ve purposes that Harare will expand into those areas • Illegal land sales resul ng in loss of grazing land and conflicts over land boundaries • RDC corrup on in the sale of business stands and encroaching in communal land Corrup on Opportuni es in early land reform processes
• Cases of land related corrup on noted by various scholars but s ll problema c is the extend of corrup on given the secre ve nature of these deals • Between 1980 and 1987 the government repossessed about 400,000 hectares of state land forredistribu on (Moyo 1995:262). • The main concern was the secre ve nature in which the leases were allocated and the lack of transparent adver sing to the public on the availability of these farms (Moyo 1995). • This represented visible and real a empts by the government to restructure the exis ng poli cal and agrarian space to pave way for the alloca on of land to members of the governing elites (Marongwe 2008:113). • Although introducing the reforms as a means of empowering the poor, ‘the ruling elite have made li le more than token rese lement of the landless peasant farmers on acquired land‘ (Makumbe 1999:14). • Makumbe (1999:15) goes on to note that ‘the elites have made effec ve use of the Land Acquisi on Act 1992 to feather their own nests‘. • Various cri cs (Goebel 2005; Makumbe 1999; Moyo 1996) argue that redistribu on of land lacked transparency, and was marked by regional, ethnic and class biases that favoured elite blacks from the regions and ethnic groups that dominated the ruling ZANU-PF party. • A report in the Guardian Weekly (30 June 1996:4) highlighted: ‗In 1992 the Zimbabwean parliament passed the Land Acquisi on Act, authorising the government to buy land compulsorily. • Two years later it was revealed that the first farms compulsorily purchased had been allocated to cabinet ministers, top civil servants and army generals‘. • Similarly, the Zimbabwean Herald (1 July 1996:10) noted: A proper commission of inquiry should be appointed to look into, and establish the veracity of allega ons made at the weekend that senior government officials in Masvingo have taken over a farm earmarked for rese ling peasants, and that they are helping themselves to the farm.‘ Corrup on Opportuni es under Fast Track Land Reform Programme • There are contesta ons when it comes to this process and two major schools of thought around who benefi ed from the programme • Marongwe (2008) in Goromonzi concludes that the poli cal and social processes governing land alloca on created par cular classes of beneficiaries whose qualifying characteris cs‘ were divorced from agriculture in terms of farming experience, and commitment and skills possessed. • Sadomba (2008:168) reveals that war veterans presented a corrup on document at a Mashonaland West Provincial Stakeholder Dialogue mee ng in 2004, accusing ZANU-PF officials of ‘changing farms willy–nilly‘, ‘leasing farms to former white farmers‘, and ‘deliberately ignoring the mandatory twenty percent alloca ons for war veterans‘. Excerpt from the Herald 16 May 2015 Government will take land from those with mul ple farms, while those with large farms exceeding 1 000 hectares will have them subdivided and parcelled out to landless families, Ac ng President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said. Responding to ques ons raised by members of the public during a Cons tu on outreach programme in Mutare yesterday, Ac ng President Mnangagwa, who is also the Minister of Jus ce, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said the ongoing land audit would expose those who had mul ple farms. “We know that some of us senior Government officials got more than one farm, while some parcelled (out) farms to family members, rela ves and girlfriends at the expense of other families,” he said. “We are going to look at that and give those pieces of land to other people. “Anyone who is found with a farm that is bigger than the required size in a region that farm falls in will have his or her por on of land downsized. So, I urge those with big farms not to invest beyond their farm sizes because those investments will be given to the person who is allocated the remaining part of the farm. • Erlich (2011:2), ci ng studies by Moyo et al. (2009) and Scoones et al. (2010), concludes that contrary to popular belief land reform in Zimbabwe benefited ordinary Zimbabweans. • He denies the prevalent reports that claim that fast track land reform was a ‘land grab‘ by ‘cronies‘ bringing about a more unequal distribu on of land than what had preceded it. • Problema c issues over elite ques on - Moyo, Scoones, Matondi all show varied beneficiaries of land but this does not mean there were no mul ple ownerships, poli cal considera ons, corrupt tendencies etc. • Redistribu on of redistributed land - ZANU PF splits and fights and problems facing Didymus Mutasa and Themba Mliswa • Newspaper reports on report backs on community outreach for the Land Commission Bill – people complaining in Masvingo, Mutare, Mash provinces of corrupt chiefs Corrup on Opportuni es in emerging large scale land investments
• In Zimbabwe large scale land deals have for now concentrated on bio fuel produc on. Ques ons of displacement – loss of livelihoods and access to resources such as water: • Mujere and Dombo note that in Zimbabwe investors in land projects have largely been controversial businessmen with close es with ZANU PF ruling elite • 1. The investment companies are fractured into different units, which appear unrelated on the surface yet they belong to same investors. This makes difficult to understand who owns what and how much money came from where. The cri cal ques on is how all the three companies are linked to Billy Rautenbach. • 2. There are mul ple agreements with government en es that seem unrelated but all facilitate the profit making agenda of foreign companies. Macdom and Ra ng have a separate agreement with Arda whilst Green Fuels has a lease with Chipinge Rural District Council for the land. • Though they claim the deals were done according to the law there are many ques ons. The most per nent issue is that Green Fuels, which stands to make money from selling biofuel, is not part of the BOT thus there is no benefit to government or local communi es in terms of profit sharing. • The agreement notes that ARDA will receive 8% of annual proceeds. What is not clear is which proceeds exactly: Is it from the sale of sugarcane from Macdom to Green Fuels or from the sale of ethanol by Green Fuels? Responses • New Land Commission – may be a star ng point • An Corrup on Commission - poli cal interference • Poli cal statements and rhetoric on the need to fight corrup on • Arrest of low level corrupt officials but the cases seem to somehow disappear • Hopelessly ineffec ve an corrup on body with some of its commissioners fired for allega ons of being corrupt • Unhelpful police without much power to in • In urban land scams some of the swindled coopera ve members note that some of the people land barons use comedian Baba Tencen’s words to show they are above the law. They say: Munga dini? Hapana Zvamunombo ita!!! (What can you do to us? There is nothing you can do)