Douglas Mombeshora in land row

By Andrew Kunambura
The Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement Douglas Mombeshora is entangled in a land dispute with the Manyame Rural District Council (RDC) and traditional leaders from Seke communal lands, the Financial Gazette can report.

Manyame RDC took possession of a 309-hectare piece of land in June last year, but officials from Mombeshora’s Ministry turned up early this month to claim the land, arguing that it was State land.

Things then came to a head when Manyame RDC councillors teamed up with the local authority’s officials and traditional leaders from Seke and stormed Mombeshora’s office demanding that he reverses the seizure of that piece of land.

Under the country’s land acquisition laws, the Ministry of Lands administers all State land.

The Ministry is mandated to transfer any piece of State land directly to local authorities or the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing for development.

However, a Provincial Lands Committee (PLC) comprising a provincial lands officer, provincial administrator and a traditional leader, also has power to allocate land, but subject to approval by the Ministry of Lands.

Despite clearly laid down land occupation procedures, this disputed piece of land, along the Harare-Masvingo highway and covering Gilton and Kimcote farms of Beatrice, is now at the centre of a raging storm that points to bureaucratic bungling.

Last year, former Mashonaland East provincial affairs minister, Joel Biggie Matiza, recommended that Manyame RDC be allocated the piece of land, but the Ministry of Lands rejected the recommendation, although it had taken a long time before giving its response.

According to correspondences obtained by the Financial Gazette, Matiza, in his capacity as the PLC chairperson, on June 2, 2015 gave Manyame RDC permission to develop the land, despite the fact that Mombeshora had, on March 5, 2014 objected to the Manyame RDC’s application.

Documents at hand show that Manyame RDC applied for the contested land in 2010 and earmarked it for development into a rural service centre, but bureaucracy stalled progress until last year.

The planned service centre was meant to cater for thousands of people who were resettled around the area during the land reform programme.

As per procedure, the application was handled by Mashonaland East provincial chief lands officer, Wilfred Motsi, who wrote to the then Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement recommending that Manyame RDC be allocated the land.

“As a province, we do not have any objection to the said rural service centre. The development of the rural service centre will go a long way to improve revenue generation for both the local authority and government,” reads the letter Motsi wrote on May 11, 2011 addressed to the permanent secretary in the Ministry.

The letter was not responded to, prompting Motsi to then write to Mombeshora, who had just taken over the Lands Ministry.

The letter, dated November 2, 2013, repeated the same recommendations made in May 2011.

Mombeshora then wrote back to the Manyame RDC on March 5, 2014 arguing that the two farms were “a buffer to absorb the imminent expansion of Harare and Chitungwiza” and therefore were not suitable for the development of a rural service centre.

“It would not make administrative sense to establish a rural service centre on these farms in the face of such an eventuality. In view of the above, my ministry believes your council could instead focus on expanding Beatrice as a growth point,” he wrote.

But the Manyame RDC persisted with the matter, with council chairperson, Naison Mudzara, subsequently writing to Matiza after he was appointed Mashonaland East provincial affairs minister in March 2015.

“Manyame Rural District Council is seriously concerned with the implications of the Minister (Mombeshora)’s response to plans of council and the attainment of our targets for the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zim-Asset).

“As a council, we are supposed to contribute to the successful implementation of the country’s economic blueprint and the establishment of the rural service centre is one way by which we can make our contribution.

“The resettled farmers in Gilston and surrounding areas need services in the form of schools, clinics, markets and other social facilities critically lacking in the area,” reads Mudzara’s letter.

“We are kindly requesting for your assistance in engaging the Minister of Lands over the issue. Council has the capacity to develop the land once authority is granted,” the letter further reads.

Matiza responded to the letter by granting Manyame RDC full custody of the land and permission to proceed with its development project.

Matiza’s letter reads: “As the minister of state for provincial affairs, Mashonaland East, together with the provincial lands committee, I have granted Manyame Rural District Council permission to imitate development at Gilston in Beatrice, and commence the process required to establish a rural service centre. Manyame RDC is also hereby granted full custody of the infrastructure at Gilstone.”

And acting on the strength of Matiza’s letter, Manyame RDC started developing the land.

According to sources, the local authority drew up a plan which it submitted to the department of physical planning which falls under the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.

The ministry reportedly approved the plan, but subject to certain alterations it had recommended.

The council then effected the changes and re-submitted it to the department of physical planning for final assessment.

At the time, it had already commenced developments such as paving of roads and general pegging.

Council also set aside 200 residential stands for youths.

However, early this month, officials from Mombeshora’s Ministry went to the area and started doing their own pegging.

“They came and destroyed an expensive banner we had put up. They also started parcelling out what they have termed agro plots and some of the land has been given to churches to establish private schools. We wonder if this is in the same spirit of promoting urban expansion on which basis Mombeshora used to deny us the land,” said an agitated councillor who declined to be identified.

“We are taking the fight to his doorstep,” fumed the councillor.

The Financial Gazette understands that on September 19, all Manyame RDC councillors, accompanied by council chief executive officer, Farirai Guta, chief Seke and members of a the Seke Youth Development Association (SYDA), besieged Mombeshora’s offices in Harare and demanded a meeting with him.

They had to confront his deputy, Berita Chikwama, to let the minister agree to meet them.

“When Mombeshora finally came, the first thing he did was to accuse us of staging a rally in his office because of the huge number of people. He then plainly told us that the RDC has no permission to be on the land and advised us to look for an alternative farm,” said one source who attended the meeting.

“He also denied that he initiated any land allocations and referred us to the Ministry of Local Government. When we produced documents that showed council had been given the land, the only thing he did was promise us that he would carry out investigations,” added the source.

Unconvinced, councillors regrouped for a full council meeting on Tuesday last week where they vowed to keep fighting for the land.

“It was resolved (at the meeting) that we shall not look for another farm. As council, we have already directed finances towards this project which we believe is key to our aspirations. Everybody was very angry at the meeting,” said one councillor.

Meanwhile, youths from SYDA are understood to have camped on the land and are threatening to beat Ministry of Lands officials if they visit the place.

Said SYDA vice chairman, Xavier Katanda: “We view this sinister move as an attack on our very survival and we urge the minister to respect the vision of the President in so far as youth empowerment is concerned. We hope higher offices are watching.”

Katanda confirmed that some youths are already camped at the area, saying “they were provoked by Mombeshora’s ministry.”

Matiza declined to comment on the matter this week, saying he could not discuss the issue since he was no longer a minister.

Mombeshora was not answering calls to his number. Financial Gazette