A legal critique on bankability of agricultural land rights in Zimbabwe. realities, problems and opportunities

Abstract

The emotive issue of land can be traced back to the colonial occupation of Zimbabwe in the 1890s and the subsequent segregationist and discriminatory practices of the colonial authority. Indigenous African people were ruthlessly dispossessed of their lands and hemmed into infertile and sometimes not humanely habitable lands and that position existed right up to independence in 1980. Through draconian legislation and brutal force, the colonial settlers and government created a dual system of land rights in the colony under which the white settlers enjoyed greater rights including freehold, over the land they occupied with Africans only possessing occupation and use rights in the reserves/tribal trust lands. That history meant that the land issue was critical heading into independence and is connected to the land reform initiatives that followed after independence. While the independence government was hamstrung in its efforts to speed up land reform within the first 10 years by the strictures of the Lancaster house independence agreement and constitution, efforts after 1990 were met with resistance and aided by political preservation, agitation for land led to a chaotic land reform that culminated in new agricultural land rights in particular; the 99-year lease which though has had bankability issues. This research ends by analysing the 99 year lease as currently couched, and suggests ways in which the 99 year leases can be improved to enhance their bankability at a stage where the irreversibility of land reform is now beyond question.