BULAWAYO– In the absence of a nationally binding framework to cushion communities relocated to pave way for development activities like mining, their social and economic rights are exposed to violations.
By Donald Nyarota
Weak land tenure framework in communal and commercial agriculture have allowed activities such as mining to take precedents over agriculture despite Zimbabwe being the African food basket. This saw thousands of families in Marange displaced to pave way for diamond mining, a clear wake up call for responsible authorities to take action.
Rural communities occupy land on the benevolence of the state, which legally owns land, with limited bargaining power for fair compensation once they are relocated to new areas.
To compound this, cultural and social rights are violated, livelihood projects are halted as communities are moved to new areas without requisite infrastructure to resemble or promote their economic activities.
A documentary produced by Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) in conjunction with Action Aid Zimbabwe, lays bare these vulnerabilities of rural communities, reliant on subsistence farming for livelihoods.
In the fifteen minutes long documentary, the case of 27 households from Vhimba, 25km south west of Chimanimani in Manicaland, poignantly presents to the viewer villagers’ livelihoods at the mercy of a skewed land tenure system.
In 2018, on 21 October the families received a 72 hours eviction notice from Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority for allegedly encroaching into natural conservancy, reigniting a dispute with a long history.
One of affected villagers Rose Murindo said they inherited the land from their forefathers who had been there for over hundred years, farming banana and subsistence food crops for their survival.
She said she was married and has raised her children on the land without incident, until there was gold discovered in the area.
“We were resisting relocation because when I first settled here, it was through marriage, and I found my husband already there. We were never told that people were not allowed to settle in that vicinity.
“I have given birth and looked after my eight children here, so I felt it is unfair for them to come now and say we should relocate. I have invested a lot on my piece of land, built a five-roomed house and other valuables, not forgetting the life that we get from the land.
However, the villagers suspect that the call for them to relocate by Zim Parks is just a cover after gold deposits were discovered from the area.
“We suspect that ZimParks was just a cover because there was gold discovered before they wanted to evict us, we even saw graders in our rivers, so we knew it was not about parks.
“As a community, we are indebted to ZELA for their work and we are now more aware of our rights that we can also defend ourselves through the knowledge they gave us,” said Murindo.
Nyaradzo Mutonhori a ZELA senior programs officer, chronicles in the documentary shortcomings of the land tenure system which only gives communities limited rights to occupy and use land without ownership, which is vested in the State.
Mutonhori contends that this limitation exposes communities to whims of arbitrary displacements to pave way for development, in some cases thousands of families have been evicted for mining development.
“The problem is that, according to the law, communal land dwellers have the right to use the land but do now own the land.
“Because of large scale investments and other interests that pertain to the use of natural resources on this land they face huge threats of arbitrary evictions and relocations to pave way for different interests, not just business interests but also some State interest,” said Mutonhori
A legal recourse
The landmark judgement handed down by the High Court to stop Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) from evicting Chimanimani families from their banana farms sets a precedent that development induced displacement can be challenged.
Darlington Chidarara, who received the distress call from the community days after gun totting ZimParks officials had threatened villagers, contends that this court victory affirms community rights enshrined in the constitution.
To activate the class act against ZimParks, the legal team had to meet the villagers first.
“To get to Vhimba was one of the harrowing experiences of my public interest litigation work, it also exposes how marginalized rural communities are in terms of infrastructure development. The 27km journey took over three hours as we navigated through the forests of Chimanimani.
“While the court action was successful there is still uncertainty in the long term as there has been no formal acknowledgment and demarcation of boundaries by the ZimParks,” he said.
Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation (CCMT) conducted a study ‘Challenges for rural communities displaced by development projects in Zimbabwe’ and developed guidelines on compensation of communities displaced for development.
Shadreck Vengesai of CCMT said there was need for government to formulate comprehensive legal framework to standardize relocation, compensation as well as minimum requirements for relocations.
Vengesai said through empirical evidence gleaned from the research in three Midlands Districts, Mberengwa, Zvishavane and Shurugwi, were indicative of huge gaps that needed legal redress.
“One of the key findings is that when people are being relocated to pave way for development projects there is very little if any deliberate attempt to ensure that their rights are respected, because we are talking about the right to land, livelihoods, social infrastructure.
“We recommend that they should relook at what they have in terms of policy or come up with a new policy that tries to minimize the adverse effects or consequences of development induced displacements,” he said.
Action Aid Zambia advisor Precious Nkandu said the trend of arbitrary evictions without fair compensation were not peculiar to Zimbabwe but was a regional trend.
Nkandu said a recent study of displaced communities in three regions of North Western and the Copperbelt provinces show how mines coerced people into signing consent for relocation under false pretext.
“All community voices are not peculiar to Zimbabwe but this is happening in all areas where development is taking place in worst case scenarios some relocated people have been killed.
“Adverse social impacts of what displacements have on the communities and the livelihood of community is also pronounced as more than 60 percent of relocated people are not fairly compensated,” said Nkandu
“To counter these arbitrary relocations, we have made recommendations for the strengthening of valuation mechanisms to ensure fairer compensations, increased awareness on human rights on land rights as well as community sensitisation programmes on land acquisition procedures and relocations,” she said.
