
Ben Freeth, a former commercial farmer in Chigoto and now a global land rights activist, described the government’s newly issued title deeds as “unbankable” and “worthless”.
The head of the SADC jurists’ tribunal expressed concern about the government’s plans to issue title deeds to farms seized in the chaotic land reform program at the turn of the century.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa last year launched a new policy allowing beneficiaries of the land reform program to sell and be able to borrow from banks using land as collateral.
Some farmers, including Mnangagwa, have already obtained titles to the farms they occupy.
However, Frith said the farms were legally issued titles to former white commercial farmers, smallholders and members of the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army.
“These title deed holders have not been compensated for their lands, even though there are final and binding court rulings confirming that these original title deeds remain intact,” he said.
Frith said the property titles granted to Mnangagwa and his associates contravened international law and the 1992 Southern African Development Treaty.
“The final and binding ruling of the Sadc Court in the Campbell case will render these new “titles” inalienable and, in the final analysis, worthless unless there is first a full and fair settlement with the holders of the original titles.
“In 2008, the court ruled in favor of a group of Zimbabwean farmers on the grounds that they were deprived of their land without access to the courts and the right to a fair trial, both of which are fundamental human rights.
“In this way, the Court held that the Government of Zimbabwe had violated the provisions of the SADC Treaty: Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd and Others v. Republic of Zimbabwe (28 November 2008).”
“As with the many different attempts to introduce new currencies into the Zimbabwean economy – there have been six attempts in 15 years to replace the US dollar as the base currency – these new ‘titles’ will become worthless,” Frith added.
“We fully support any initiative to issue true title titles on farms that were authentically purchased by the Zimbabwean government and in communal areas where Zimbabweans have never enjoyed the benefits of freehold titles to their owners.”
He praised the Rwandan government for issuing freehold title deeds to its citizens.
“We are convinced that this, coupled with a firmly established rule of law, is the key game-changer that will allow Africa to overcome poverty.
“The current move by the Zimbabwean government to issue what some have described as ‘fake property titles’ will only lead to further confusion and stagnation in the agricultural economy and in Zimbabwe in general,” he said.
Frith said the government needed to return to the rule of law, re-establish the justice system, and comply with final and binding rulings such as the Campbell ruling from the Court of Chancery.
Meanwhile, in a recent UK presentation, Frith said that unlike in the West, many places have no property titles at all in Africa.
Rwanda has made this incredibly powerful shift, but Zimbabwe has gone the other way. They took title deeds where title deeds existed and the country developed on the back of title deeds.
“So what I would like to see is this kind of title titles and a fair system created in Zimbabwe. Of the 10,000 titles that have been cancelled, one million titles could be created within Zimbabwe.” Newsday