Zimbabwe seizes farm owned by OSISA boss Siphosami Malunga
Zimbabwe’s government says it has seized a farm owned by the family of the late national hero Sydney Malunga, it says to resettle landless families.
Lands minister Anxious Masuka published the notice of
acquisition in the Government Gazette last December – but the Malunga family
was unaware until this week when they were called by a lands officer.
Masuka said the farm measuring 553 hectares in Nyamandlovu,
Matabeleland North, was being compulsorily acquired “for purposes of
agriculture resettlement” under section 72(2) of the constitution which allows
the government to seize land without compensation except for improvements.
One of Malunga’s children, Siphosami, currently the
executive director of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA),
said they would fight the seizure.
He suggested the farm grab was punishment for his human
rights work with OSISA.
“Today we received a call from Mr Dodzi at the Lands Office
in Bulawayo to tell us that the Zimbabwe government has acquired our privately
owned farm and tomorrow they are coming peg it and give it to people they have
allocated it to,” Malunga wrote on Twitter.
“This is not about land reform and we will fight it in every
way. The farm is wholly privately owned by three black individuals and we only
got to see the Government Gazette and acquisition notice issued on December 18
for the first time today after the lands officer gave us the number and told us
to go to government printers.”
Malunga said they bought the farm about four years ago,
although the listed owner in the government notice is a company called
Kershelmer Farms (Private) Limited.
Under Section 295 of the constitution of Zimbabwe, farmers
covered by Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements (BIPPAs),
and indigenous black farmers must be compensated for land taken over for
resettlement.
Only in March last year, the government published the Land
Commission (Gazetted Land) (Disposal in Lieu of Compensation) Regulations (SI
62 of 2020) which provide that black Zimbabwean farmers can apply to the
government “for restoration of title to the piece of agricultural land that was
compulsorily acquired from them for resettlement.”
The then lands minister, the late Perrance Shiri, said the
seizure of black owned farms was a historical mistake. He said 440 black-owned
farms had been gazetted for seizure.
Zimbabwe’s government has since 2000 taken over more than
5,450 farms, mainly from white farmers.
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