By Abigail VT Munyoro
A few days after the 21st February movement holiday, may I take this opportunity to share with you what I feel is now of serious concern to the people of Zimbabwe. The biggest question is, as they say, “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo” (a country is built by its own people), is this the true situation in Zimbabwe right now? “Who really owns Zimbabwe and what is next?”
Matters of national interest and development should be given the attention and respect that they deserve. They are absolutely vital and therefore above partisan politics, which has become the norm in Zimbabwe of today.
If Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo is a true philosophy for Zimbabwe, why then the relentless destruction of people’s homes in almost all the provinces of the country? Are we not creating problems for ourselves as those affected slide deeper into abject poverty as a result. And yet, we have set ourselves to achieve Vision 2030, which may remain a pipe dream if our course of action does not change.
Zimbabwe once again is in a state of confusion, where citizens, after having voted overwhelmingly in favor of the current government, now they are regarded as illegal settlers. While I am not against bringing sanity in the country, why were these people evicted from their land when those areas were part of the delimitation exercise that saw them participating in the past harmonized election in August 2023. This cannot be the best way of doing things. It is heartbreaking and very difficult to swallow when we look at the number of years that these people have stayed on their pieces of land. They participated in all national programs, but now they are being evicted and labeled as squatters. No doubt they even appear in some government records where such areas are considered legal.
If the government remains silent about what actually happened and continues to evict and demolish these people’s homes because they are illegal, then, their votes of last year are also illegal and this automatically means that the delimitation report used to conduct elections is invalid too.
The current state of affairs of those evicted is deplorable. What was done is inhuman and insane. Certain measures could have been taken first before evictions and demolitions were done. What pains most is the period that they took to have those structures and other infrastructure, and in the blink of an eye, such homes are no more.
All those affected are now prone to viral diseases such as cholera and Covid19, heart attacks, and stress, among other health complications.
Why is the government now putting all the blame on them, and yet they enjoyed their support all over these years? Is this how we build our nation? This is cruel, and the government could have shown remorse for these people who were legitimately allocated the pieces of land by village heads with blessings from the highest offices in government.
No one owns Zimbabwe. Land belongs to all Zimbabweans.
Dignity is an inalienable right for every citizen in Zimbabwe, which is a gift from God. We inherited that from him, so why depriving others in such manners. What happened must be condemned out rightly, and we warn the citizens not to be trapped and used again.
It is disturbing to note that Zimbabwe is now 43 years old after having attained independence, but the majority of citizens are still relying and dependent on the government. The reality is that the majority of citizens are simply occupiers of that land without ownership. A title deed gives someone ownership, not an offer letter. This is happening because the communal lands act is draconian and colonial. We inherited laws of our previous colonial masters, a development that has seen only a few benefiting from all the blood lost during the war.
What this simply means is that you cannot create wealth for yourself and for the next generation as was in the past. One can be evicted at any given time when the owner of the land (government) wants it for other purposes. What baffles much is that, all those chosen few have title deeds and the majority of citizens who even suffered a lot during the liberation struggle only have offer letters, which is a liability on the part of the settler.
No matter how much one has invested on that piece of land, when the owner eventually wants to use it, they will simply reposes it.
The future is uncertain for the majority of citizens as the owner of the land can declare any eviction to serve their interests. The government must give title deeds to citizens to protect themselves and their next generations. A very good example is what came out of the divorce papers of the daughter of the former president of the Republic of Zimbabwe with her former husband. How many farms did they have? They all had title deeds. With title deeds, you are entitled to anything legal on that land. If they did not have Title Deeds, the government could have forfeited some of those farms, but because of Title Deeds, they still own those farms.
No citizen should endure the headache of losing their property again once in possession of title deeds for their properties.
The recent evictions and demolitions of homes and other infrastructures are a clear violation of the law and violets several provisions of the constitution, including
Section 51-Diginity Section, 68-Administrative Justice, Section 71-Property Rights, and Section 74- Freedom from Arbitrary Eviction.
It is unfortunate that the law governing land vests all land in the President. The law allows the president to make declarations that can affect the rights and interests of those living in communal areas.
This is not fair at all. There is a great need to address this urgently by Issuing Title Deeds, depoliticizing land allocation, protecting communities from homelessness, reviewing the Communal Lands Act, desisting from dishing out mineral resources to friends and relatives at the expense of those who have stayed there for a couple of years.
Abigirl VT Munyoro is the President of the Zimbabwe Independent Movement (ZIM). She can be contacted on the following:
https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaO2XLnGzzKJneUW4Y2X
https://chat.whatsapp.com/G2ANplioHriJhLflHsBz1I
https://chat.whatsapp.com/Ij8ZcRwZl3e8Yg5vj8mYfe
zimparty@outlook.com
