Land saga deepens

LIVINGSTONE MARUFU

At least five land committee members were this week arrested while a lands officer was suspended as government probes the illegal downsizing and distribution of land,  Business Times can report.

The latest comes after Business Times exposed illegal land sales countrywide as perpetrators capitalise on the increased demand for land.

It is estimated that the Land, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement ministry has over 100,000 land seekers on the waiting list.

The arrested members belong to the Saratoga Farm land committee in Goromonzi district, Mashonaland East Province.

It is understood that the land committee members allocated each other State land and also to their suspected associates.

They are also said to be pocketing money from desperate home seekers, prejudicing the government of potential revenue.

Saratoga, which is located 46km from the capital Harare along Shamva Road under Goromonzi district, has become a hotbed of State land seizures and land downsizing due to its proximity to the city.

Business Times can report that the ministry of lands team from Harare led by Gorden Sigauke descended on Saratoga on a fact-finding mission.

The village head Alious Sithole and other five members were then summoned for questioning by the Lands Inspectorate in Harare.

The Inspectorate consists of members of the uniformed forces who deal with corruption in the lands ministry.

Sigauke confirmed the summoning and questioning of the village head and some members involved in the scam but did not reveal finer details.

 But, several members of the Lands Inspectorate who went to Saratoga Farm explained on condition of anonymity.

“We have opened dockets for the five members from Saratoga Village where they are accused of illegal land sales, downsizing other plot holders’ land without the knowledge of the lands ministry officials, vandalism  and theft of  farm property,” one member of the Lands Inspectorate told Business Times.

 “The Lands Inspectorate has opened an investigation on the matter and the five were ordered to report once a week to our offices. The Inspectorate has resolved that the lands officer involved should be suspended forthwith pending investigations and the village member committees together with the village head should be suspended.” 

Besides the illegal parcelling of land, the committee members and the village head were accused of illegal sale of State property which includes electric motors, roofing aluminium sheets, cow catchers, irrigation pipes, tobacco clippers and ladders among other equipment.

Goromonzi Lands Officer Wilfred Bika, who was in alleged connivance with the village head, is also said to have been suspended by the Inspectorate.

It is understood that this was not the first time Bika was caught in the eye of the land storm. About six years ago, he is said to have been suspended over land scandals.

Efforts to get a comment from Bika were futile. He uttered unprintable words when this reporter called on Tuesday.

Repeated efforts to contact him yesterday drew blanks as his number went unanswered.

Lands Administration and Management director Marius Dzinoreva confirmed receiving reports of the nabbed committee members and the village head.

Dzinoreva said they should be brought to book and set as an example.

“I received that report from the Lands Inspectorate and I am going to action it soon for the law to take its course, it’s inhuman to take such a small portion from a farmer who had been legally settled by the government.

Though the courts will take its processes, there is compelling evidence in the report to convict perpetrators,” Dzinoreva said.

He said there was no land process which takes place without provincial Lands Officers and proper documentation.

The documentation gives a plot holder seven days to respond to the reasons for downsizing and without that in place, Dzinoreva said farmers should resist such activities and report the matter to the Lands Office.

Dzinoreva said if the downsizing was in the districts or provinces, it should involve the provincial minister or officials from his or her office.

The syndicate is a well-knit network consisting of headmen and traditional Chiefs working in connivance with Provincial Land Officers.

Some Lands Officers have since been reshuffled across the country as the government looks at curbing rising corruption in land allocations.

Investigations by Business Times revealed that the syndicate has taken advantage of the rising demand in farming land and they have been undertaking their own land auditing exercise that has seen most farmers losing their land.

This syndicate has also sucked in officials from the Ministry of Land, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement’s Legal Department.

Those in need of land are being asked to fork out around US$3,000 to US$5,000. 

The illegal selling of land is a blot on the land redistribution exercise carried out about 20 years to give previously marginalised Zimbabweans one of the means of production.