By Staff Reporter
Zimbabwe’s war veterans are stepping up their opposition to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei, accusing them of attempting to privatize land ownership and undermine the agrarian reforms they fought for.
In October 2024, Mnangagwa announced a new land tenure system that will replace the 99-year leases and offer letters previously given to landowners with title deeds. The new policy, known as the Land Tenure Implementation Programme, was introduced through a Cabinet meeting and later backed by the appointment of Tagwirei, who is on the U.S. sanctions list for alleged corruption, as head of the Land Tenure Implementation Committee.
Under the plan, land reform beneficiaries are being asked to pay a US$500 per hectare levy, which has drawn sharp criticism. Many argue that the government is shifting the burden of compensating former white commercial farmers onto individual farmers, potentially setting them up for financial failure. Critics believe this move risks reversing the gains made in land redistribution and opening the door to privatization, particularly in favor of well-connected elites.
On Saturday, the provincial executives of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) gathered in Bulawayo to take a firm stand against the land regularization process. The war veterans voiced concerns over the new system, claiming it could lead to the loss of land that was hard-won through the liberation struggle.
“The ZNLWVA met with chairpersons from all 10 provinces to address pressing issues affecting veterans and the nation,” said Andrease Mathibela, leader of the ZNLWVA. “We must unite under our collective leadership to end divisions that harm our comrades. We will resist any attempt to sell our land, which is a sacred legacy of the liberation struggle.”
Mathibela also stressed that veterans should each be allocated no less than 100 hectares of land to support livelihoods and food security.
Prominent war veteran Blessed “Bombshell” Geza voiced his opposition as well, denouncing the regularization as a “corrupt scam.” “We fought for our land. Robert Mugabe redistributed it to war veterans and the landless. Yet now, Mnangagwa and Tagwirei want to privatize it using this dubious title deed scheme,” Geza said. “Farmers will lose what they fought for.”
Political analyst Jealousy Mawarire echoed these sentiments, calling the land regularization process a “scam” designed to exploit farmers for billions of dollars. He pointed out that the Land Tenure Implementation Committee, which is collecting fees from farmers, lacks legal standing. “The committee is illegally extracting money for land valuation and title deeds, setting farmers up for defaulting on loans and ultimately losing their land to banks owned by the likes of Tagwirei.”
In a further escalation, a group of war veterans has taken legal action against Mnangagwa’s land tenure programme. The veterans, through the War Veterans Pressure Group Trust, have sought a court ruling declaring the land tenure reforms unconstitutional.
Joseph Chinguwa, a war veteran involved in the case, explained that ex-combatants had been told that they must pay for the land they occupy before they can receive title deeds. “We seek a declaratory order affirming that agricultural land acquired during the land reform programme cannot be privatized without an Act of Parliament,” Chinguwa said in his affidavit.
He added that the proposed system violates the Constitution, specifically Section 72(5), which nullified title deeds issued to former white farmers after land was redistributed, and Section 293(3), which requires an Act of Parliament to codify any changes to land tenure.
The controversial land regularization programme is also linked to a US$3.5 billion debt owed to former white commercial farmers as part of a compensation agreement signed by Mnangagwa’s government in 2020. To raise the money, the government had planned to issue bonds and seek donor assistance, but so far has struggled to meet its financial commitments. In a recent development, the government announced an initial payout of US$3 million to kick-start the compensation process.
The ongoing legal battles and vocal opposition from war veterans highlight the deepening tensions over Zimbabwe’s land reform policies, with many questioning whether the new land tenure system will benefit the country’s farmers or pave the way for land privatization by politically-connected elites.
