Land Dispute In Zimbabwe's Communal Lands

By Marimo Ronald - Ndinokumbirawo kuti ndibatsirwe neruzhinji kuti ndizive masimba a sabhuku zvichienderana nekutongwa kwemabhuku .Ndiri kugara mubhuku raKahari mudunhu ra chief Chikwaka nyaya irikundishungurudza ndeyekuti sabhuku anandakavakidzana naye anonzi Jemera Chirima anoti avakuda kundibvisa panvimbo yandakasiyiwa nevabereki vangu. vabereki vangu vakatanga kugara mubhuku iri 1949 kusvika parinhasi chinondinetsa ndochokuti vabereki vangu vari vapenyu sabhuku uyu haana kumbotaura zvomuganhu .uye vabereki vangu vakagariswa patsva nachigovanyika ,minda yavo ine madundhunduru. madhomini akavagarisa anononzi Mandhava na Magwenzi . Zvitupa zvavo kusvikira panechangu zvakanyorwa kunzi bhuku Kahari .Chirikundinetsa ndeckuti Zvondonzi ndibve Inzvimbo yaNyamasoka ndoenda kupi nemhuri uye ini ndirikuona kunge Sabhuku uyu arikutengesa nzvimbo saka kupera kwaita kwake ndikokwavekukonzera kuti atsvagurudze zvemiganhu. Vanokwanisa kundipawo mazano ngavandibatsirewo ndashaiwa zano nenyaya iyi.

Translation

By Marimo Ronald - I need help to understand the powers of a headman over the village they preside over. I stay in Kahari village in Chief Chikwaka's area. My problem is that my headman Jemera Chirima wants to evict me from the home I inherited from my parents. My parents moved to this village in 1949. My parents were allocated the land by Chigovanyika and the agricultural demonstrators who demarcated the land are Mandhava and Magwenzi.  While my parents were alive the headman never mentioned anything about boundaries. My national identification card and those of my parents state that we come from Kahari village. My problem is that I am now being asked to move away and allow Nyamasoka to move in. Where do I go with my family. I thing the headman has been accepting money to allocate land. Now he has run out of land in his jurisdiction, he wants to evict me. I need your help because I am at my wits' end.

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Your problem illustrates one of the problems left behind by colonialists and not addressed at all by subsequent land reform programs. In terms of the law neither you nor the Sabhuku owns the land. In the early colonial days communal land was called the Queen's Land. Native reserves were created by colonial state on the Queen's Land. In other words the land legally belonged to the Queen and natives were only allowed to stay there upon the Queen's grace.

As you can see the native residents were not owners of the land and if the Queen (upon the recommendation of the colonial government) decided to use the land for something else, they could not take her to court. This was designed to make it easy to evict the natives if the land was allocated to whites as happened with the Tangwena people of Gairezi.

After Ian Smith's UDI the land became Tribal Trust Lands. The state took over ownership from the Queen (since Ian Smith was unilaterally declaring independence from the Queen ruled Great Britain). However the people living on the land were still not given formal title to the land.

After independence the land was rechristened Communal Lands but was still left in the ownership of the state. The residents of communal lands still do not have formal title to the land.

When white farmers were evicted, most of them took the state to court. That is because they have formal title (registered ownership) of the land (commonly referred to as title deeds or deed of grant). On the other hand people like the Tangwena and Chiadzwa people had no recourse to the law because they had no registered title to the land they called their homes. Unfortunately this lack of registered deed of grant or lease, applies to all people in communal lands (i.e. former native reserves (maruzevha) and communalised resettlements (minda mirefu)).

A deed of grant establishes the fact of who owns what land and the boundaries of the land. If you have no such record, the court has to rely of the word of witnesses and then it becomes your word against the Sabhuku's and any other witnesses either of you might call before the court. Even then the rights that both of you enjoy are less than those of a registered title holder. The colonial system deliberately left natives without adequate rights and protection.

I am not aware of any cases involving a traditional leader and a tenant that have been taken to court, so I do not know if there is a legal precedent to your case. Disputes such as the Tangwena case and the Chiadzwa case have been disputes between the state and occupants of communal lands.

In both cases what happened has depended on the political mood of the moment. As such their fate has been entirely at the whim of politicians. If the politics of the day is in your favour then good for you, but if things go the other way then you are virtually without legal protection.

In today's terms it may boil down to whether you are a Zanu-PF member or an MDC member. Being neutral sometimes doesn't help because each group then accuses you of belonging to the other.

I do not want to lie to you and say that I know the exact solution to your problem. The best option is to maintain good relations with your neighbours such as the sabhuku, if that is possible, so that you avoid giving each other problems.

The second option is to simply stay put and do nothing. The Sabhuku does not have the legal authority to evict you. But remember this won't stop him from using illegal violence against you. You should carefully consider your safety before taking this route.

Another option is to try and use traditional channels. You can take your case to the chief of your area. The chief can then make a determination. Traditionally the chief's authority is above that of the Sabhuku. However it is very likely the Sabhuku will bear a grudge against you for a long time and could find other ways of causing you trouble in future.

Lastly you can explore the idea of obtaining a peace order against the Sabhuku and others disturbing your peace. This affords you protection in terms of state law, provided the law is professionally and impartially enforced. I would also suggest that you approach Ministry of Lands and/or Ministry of Local Government officials in your district and obtain their opinion. They are the groups most likely to have dealt with similar cases in the past.

But let me stress the best way to solve any dispute is to avoid it. Therefore the best option would be to maintain good relations with your neighbours and avoid the dispute in the first place. That would mean negotiating your way out of the predicament by talking to the Sabhuku. For matters to come to this point, there must be something you and him are disagreeing about which you havent't mentioned. Pamwe makamitisirana vana kana kutorerana vakadzi (nyangwe vekubhawa).

You know your own circumstances better than I do so at the end of the day everything depends on your wise judgement. Make your decisions very carefully because this matter can affect you for the rest of your life.