HARARE – The SADC Tribunal Rights Watch has raised the red flag at the possible breach of both domestic and international law by the Zimbabwean government which has rolled out a programme to issue title deeds on land expropriated by the state without compensation from its white former owners and the now defunct opposition PF Zapu’s military wing, ZIPRA soon after independence in 1980.

To see the implementation of the title deeds system, Mnangagwa appointed a Land Tenure Technical Committee chaired by businessman and top ally, Kudakwashe Tagwirei.

Tracts of arable land in Zimbabwe were seized by the then Robert Mugabe led government since 2000 under a chaotic land reform programme ostensibly to resettle native black Zimbabweans who were disadvantaged by colonial land imbalances that the government argued favoured the white settler regime and its descendants.

At an event on President Mnangagwa’s Precabe farm near Kwekwe on Friday 20 December 2024, a handful of farmers, including Mnangagwa, received “title deeds” to the farms they are currently on.”

However, SADC Tribunal spokesperson Ben Freeth, who doubles as the Mike Campbell Foundation’s executive director in Zimbabwe, said the newly issued title deeds were unbankable and worthless.

Freeth said it was against the law for government to purport to be issuing title deeds for farms that already had legally issued title deeds owned by former white commercial farmers, small holders, members of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) whose properties were seized, and others.

“These title deed owners have not been compensated for their land, despite having final and binding court judgments which confirm that such original title deeds are still bona fide,” Freeth said in a statement.

He added, “Such deeds fly in the face of international law and the Southern African Development Community’s SADC Treaty of 1992.”

The now late Campbell and some white commercial farmers who lost their land in Zimbabwe filed a bold challenge with the SADC Tribunal which went on to pass a ruling indicating the Zanu PF led administration was in breach of property rights through expropriation of private commercial land.

Referring to the judgement, Freeth said the ruling by the regional court was “binding” and “will render these new title deeds” unbankable and, in the final analysis, worthless unless there is first a full and fair settlement with the owners of the original title deeds”.

Freeth said Mnangagwa’s title deed project will suffer the fate of the many currencies that have been introduced by the Zimbabwean government and later becoming worthless due to inflation.

“As is the case with the various and numerous attempts to issue new currencies in the Zimbabwean economy — there have been six attempts in 15 years to replace the US dollar as the primary currency — these new “title deeds” will become worthless,” said the former mango producer.

“We fully support any initiative to issue bona fide title deeds on farms that have been authentically bought by the Zimbabwe Government and in communal areas where Zimbabweans have never enjoyed the benefits that freehold title deeds accrue to their owners.

“We applaud governments like the Rwandan government and others for their bold move to issue many millions of bona fide freehold title deeds to their people and thereby emancipate those people, creating wealth for them and the country from “thin air”.

“We are convinced that this, along with the firm establishment of the rule of law, is the fundamental game changer which will allow Africa to overcome poverty.”

Freeth said the title deeds drive by government will only create more confusion and stagnation in the agricultural economy and in Zimbabwe generally.

Writing on X, Opposition politician and layer Fadzayi Mahere concurred saying the title deeds were unconstitutional.

At law, said the opposition politician, there are only 3 methods by which one can hold, use or occupy state land.

“These are by way of an offer letter, a permit or a lease. There is no law that empowers the state to give out title deeds for agricultural land. The Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act says this expressly.

“Ownership in state land vests in the State by operation of law in terms of section 72(4) of the Constitution. All the previously held title deeds for this land were endorsed accordingly. Check the Deeds Office. How would you purport to undo all that and start issuing new title deeds? There’s no legal mechanism by which such conveyancing can validly take place.

“In short, it would be unconstitutional to alienate the land in the manner suggested. You would have to repeal section 72 of the Constitution in its entirety and effectively reverse everything you were trying to do during the Land Reform Program.

“You’d have to a8mend the Constitution to create this imagined security of tenure. Stop lying to yourselves and the public. We need new leaders!”