By Takura Zhangazha*
The Commission of Inquiry into the Matter of the Sale of
State Land in and Around Urban Areas Since 2005 headed by Justice Uchena
recently submitted its full report and recommendations to President Mnangagwa. What
was made publicly available was the executive summary of the report.
In it, there were astounding but very expected findings.
Some of them that were/are also being brazenly lived out. They include the unlawful change of land use
of agricultural farms adjacent to major cities, the lack of infrastructure for
subsequent physical settlements on the same land, the prejudicing of the state
of at least US$ 3 billion or the lack of interactive regulatory responsibility
by at least two ministries and local government authorities. Just to mention a few.
The executive summary is scant on names of actual
perpetrators but hints at land barons, housing cooperatives and political party
operatives.
What is most clear however is that fifteen years after the
fast track land reform programme (FTLRP) began (in 2000) it has dramatically
changed in its preferred import. Whereas
initially intended as a massive nationalization or re-possession of
agricultural land for, again agricultural livelihood use by a black majority,
it has morphed into a largely urban focused land (capital) utilisation reform exercise. Across cities, peri-urban areas and even what has
always been designated as growth points.
It is reflective of not only of the urban aspirations of a
lot of Zimbabweans. That is to want land for urban use. But also and tragically so, haphazard
profiteering from the FTLRP by those that have been in charge of the country and
local government since the latter's inception.
The forgoing point is perhaps the most significant. The Uchena commission report boldly states that
the state was directly prejudiced of at least "USD 2 977 072 819 [two
billion nine hundred and seventy seven million eight hundred and 19 thousand
united states dollars]" as it relates to 'intrinsic value.'
This is no
small change but may still not be reflective of the actual amountlost to the state.
The key issue is that state capital was directly
turned, without full legal and financial accountability, either in terms of following
legal procedures or paying relevant taxes, into private capital.
The FTLRP, it would appear, moved from being ‘revolutionary’ as regularly
pronounced by proponents of a ‘third Chimurenga’. Instead it became a smash and grab political
feast on state capital. As led by not
only land barons, the politically powerful and housing cooperatives. All within the other context of the fact that
this originally state owned capital is still disputed in relation to ownership and
control by the former white commercial farmers and global capital.
So it’s a catch 22 situation.
The Uchena Commission exposes what is a Zimbabwean version of ‘enclosure’
of what the 3rd Chimurenga had nationalized. To its re-privatisation
for adjacent to urban areas rural agricultural land for direct individual
private profit.
This then leads us to the reality that by the time Uchena submits his report
to the presidency, there are thousands of families that are now living and
eking out some sort of livelihoods on the same land.
The heads of these families through various agents and means settled
there because they were legally able to.
Or in the most political of the cases, they found opportunity to do
so. And as alluded to earlier, this is a
direct result of aspirations to the urban or being irban by Zimbabweans.
The FTLRP may have been an enabler of a resurgence of a massive
rural-urban migration based not only of the fact that the rural political
economy had been immediately negatively affected. But also the fact that opportunities to live closer
and permanently to the ‘bright lights’ were availed by political parties, land
barons and housing cooperatives. Even those
in the Diaspora took advantage for the same and have even acquired housing 'cooperatives' from as far away as Canada even though the likelihood of their
permanent return for the same is next to none.
Uchena however makes recommendations that ask central government to regularize
existent residential use of acquired land, pursue criminal and civil charges against
land barons, housing cooperatives and political actors who did not regularize their
acquired land or duped desperate home seekers.
Uchena also recommends greater efficiency between relevant ministries and
the expansion of water facilities in all urban areas as well as a cessation on
new residential stand allocation across the country.
While it remains the prerogative of central government to decide what
to do with these recommendations, we can only say that we know it has been
complicit in creating the problems outlined as having occurred since 2015. We also know that the Uchena reports points
to the political expediency of the FTLRP.
Political actors created new urban spaces to gain electoral leverage and
in tandem distribute patronage that also directly economically profiteered
from. Like having your cake and eating
it too.
What is however also subtly hinted at in the Uchena report is the
inevitability of urbanization. All via a
vehicle they refer to as a proposed special purpose vehicle to be run by the
Office of the President and Cabinet.
The major risk of this is to fall into a narrative of the inevitability
of urbanization in Zimbabwe or Africa.
My considered personal view is that we need to resist this false
narrative. The urban may have bright
lights but it may not be as humanely progressive as is touted. We may need to look at how we can improve the
rural, to try and modernize it and make it more self-sufficient beyond subsistence
agriculture.
*Takura Zhangazha writes here in his personal capacity (takura-zhangazha.blogspot.com)
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