Land related corrupon in BackgroundZimbabwe Manase Kudzai Chiweshe Chinhoyi University of Technology Land remains an emo1ve and polarising feature of the Zimbabwean socio-poli1cal landscape Corrup1on is broadly defined in this study as the inten1onal misperformance or neglect of a recognized duty or the unwarranted exercise of power with the mo1ve of gaining some advantage more or less directly personal. Zimbabwe Emphasis on power by the micro physics element of power which makes corrup1on the property of relaonships Different types - peEy, poli1cal - patronage, grand, nepo1sm Difficult to research and provide factual figures on the extent of corrup1on Corrupon Opportuni1es Communal Land • Abuse of power by village heads, chiefs and Rural District Councils through their explicit and tacit par1cipaon in illegal land sales – ILLEGAL because communal land cannot be transacted with. There are no 1tles changing hands. • Lack of set standards for transparent and accountable applicaon in land allocaon • 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, speculave purposes that Harare will expand into those areas • Illegal land sales resul1ng in loss of grazing land and conflicts over land boundaries • RDC corrup1on in the sale of business stands and encroaching in communal land Corrup1on Opportuni1es in early land reform processes • Cases of land related corrup1on noted by various scholars but s1ll problemac is the extend of corrup1on given the secre1ve nature of these deals • Between 1980 and 1987 the government repossessed about 400,000 hectares of state land forredistribu1on (Moyo 1995:262). • The main concern was the secre1ve nature in which the leases were allocated and the lack of transparent adver1sing to the public on the availability of these farms (Moyo 1995). • This represented visible and real aempts by the government to restructure the exis1ng poli1cal and agrarian space to pave way for the allocaon 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 liEle more than token reseElement of the landless peasant farmers on acquired land‘ (Makumbe 1999:14). • Makumbe (1999:15) goes on to note that ‘the elites have made effec1ve use of the Land Acquisi1on Act 1992 to feather their own nests‘. • Various cri1cs (Goebel 2005; Makumbe 1999; Moyo 1996) argue that redistribu1on 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 Acquisi1on 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 allegaons made at the weekend that senior government officials in Masvingo have taken over a farm earmarked for reseEling peasants, and that they are helping themselves to the farm.‘ Corrup1on Opportuni1es under Fast Track Land Reform Programme • There are contestaons when it comes to this process and two major schools of thought around who benefiEed from the programme • Marongwe (2008) in Goromonzi concludes that the poli1cal and social processes governing land allocaon created par1cular classes of beneficiaries whose qualifying characteris1cs‘ were divorced from agriculture in terms of farming experience, and commitment and skills possessed. • Sadomba (2008:168) reveals that war veterans presented a corrup1on document at a Mashonaland West Provincial Stakeholder Dialogue mee1ng in 2004, accusing ZANU-PF officials of ‘changing farms willy–nilly‘, ‘leasing farms to former white farmers‘, and ‘deliberately ignoring the mandatory twenty percent allocaons for war veterans‘. Excerpt from the Herald 16 May 2015 Government will take land from those with mul1ple farms, while those with large farms exceeding 1 000 hectares will have them subdivided and parcelled out to landless families, Ac1ng President Emmerson Mnangagwa has said. Responding to ques1ons raised by members of the public during a Cons1tu1on outreach programme in Mutare yesterday, Ac1ng President Mnangagwa, who is also the Minister of jus1ce, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, said the ongoing land audit would expose those who had mul1ple farms. “We know that some of us senior Government officials got more than one farm, while some parcelled (out) farms to family members, relaves 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 por1on 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), ci1ng 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 distribu1on of land than what had preceded it. • Problemac issues over elite ques1on - Moyo, Scoones, Matondi all show varied beneficiaries of land but this does not mean there were no mul1ple ownerships, poli1cal consideraons, corrupt tendencies etc. • Redistribu1on 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 Corrup1on Opportuni1es in emerging large scale land investments • In Zimbabwe large scale land deals have for now concentrated on bio fuel produc1on. Ques1ons 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 1es 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 cri1cal ques1on is how all the three companies are linked to Billy Rautenbach. • 2. There are mul1ple agreements with government en11es that seem unrelated but all facilitate the profit making agenda of foreign companies. Macdom and Rang 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 ques1ons. The most per1nent 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 communi1es 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 star1ng point • An1 Corrup1on Commission - poli1cal interference • Poli1cal statements and rhetoric on the need to fight corrupon • Arrest of low level corrupt officials but the cases seem to somehow disappear • Hopelessly ineffec1ve an1 corrup1on body with some of its commissioners fired for allegaons of being corrupt • Unhelpful police without much power to in • In urban land scams some of the swindled cooperave 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) .