Policy should harmonise farming interests

The proposed new National Land Policy should help resolve conflicts between miners and farming communities as well as address issues of land inheritance, stakeholders have said.

These emerged during a land policy consultative workshop, which was held in Gweru on Monday where participants called for harmonisation of policy to ensure smooth business operations.

Policy consultant Dr Charles Chavhunduka said a lot of gaps need to be addressed in the proposed policy including dealing with conflicts between communities and miners. He said the proposed policy seeks to position the rights of the community on communal land, which is State land with a view to compensating affected families in case of displacements.

“It (new policy) also seeks to transfer offer letters into tradable 99-year leases among other proposals, which will be given by stakeholders.

“We have the land governance policy, which is set to deal with people who are coming in to settle on grazing land. The population is growing and yet the land is not expanding,” said Dr Chavhunduka.

“The policy should be clear on who should be settled where. We need demarcation and mapping of community boundaries to deal with conflicts of overlapping.”

He said the Mines and Minerals Act amendment process must be sensitive to community interests as it currently gives too much power to people who come to invest in communities with owners of the land sometimes left with nothing.

“We need to make sure that the regulatory authorities are constituted in such a way that will address gender issues in line with the national gender policy,” said Dr Chavhunduka.

Stakeholders who attended the consultative meeting said they needed the land policy to address disputes that often arise between farmers and miners.

“Currently we have a law that gives the miner the right to come and mine in my farm. This often raises conflicts and we want this law to come clean and correct this,” said Mr Bernard Chanakira, a participant.

“We have been dealing with a colonial law, which needs to be revisited.”

Another participant, Mrs Melody Moyo, said the new policy should address gender disparities that gave men a right to land ownership and often sidelines women.

“I have been touched by your document’s desire to deal with issues of gender parity. I believe there are a lot of historical injustices on the way the land has been distributed in the past,” she said.

“How do you intend to correct these imbalances where certain widows’ land was taken away when there was no such a policy? I propose that you use existing empirical evidence based on baseline surveys in addressing such issues,” she said.-herald.cl.zw