PATIENCE MATONO
A CIVIL society organisation, Zimbabwe Women Against Corruption Trust (ZWACT), has identified bribery, nepotism and favouritism as the main factors hindering women from accessing land, amid growing calls for access to safe and secure land tenure for displaced women.
Earlier this year, the government evicted people settled on state land, leaving hundreds of families homeless, particularly in Masvingo and Manicaland provinces.
For instance, in February, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) represented 327 villagers from the Mahachi area ilof Chipinge district in Manicaland province, who were facing eviction amid accusations of illegal settlement.
Up to 80 of villagers from Munyokowere Village, in ward 5 of Chipinge Rural District Council under Chief Mutema were also accused of illegally settling in the area.
ZWACT said most of the victims have been women, with its survey showing that only 2% of the women are landowners in Manicaland and Masvingo provinces, leaving the rest vulnerable.
“We noticed that women are disproportionately affected because of their roles in the family. The major challenge we noticed is that of poor access to information and less knowledge about their rights which makes them more vulnerable to corruption,” said Sandra Matendere, ZWACT executive director.
“There are some traditional leaders who use discriminatory approach to women in need of land. Some women narrated how they were requested to produce their husband’s identity documents before land is allocated to them in Zimbabwe.”
Findings by a 2024 report titled “Gendered Impact of Corruption and Internal Displacements on Women’s Access to Land Rights, Water and Sanitation, Food Security, and Reproductive Health Rights in Zimbabwe”, by ZWACT has ranked favouritism as the main hindrance to access to land.
With a 34% score, favouritism emerged prominently as the most common form of corruption which involves showing preferential treatment or giving unfair advantages to some individuals or groups based on personal relationships rather than based on real need for land.
“This leads to inefficiencies and incompetencies in decision-making processes,” according to the report.
Nepotism, a practice in which individuals in positions of power or authority show preferential treatment to their family members or friends, has also been identified as a major contributor with a 24% score.
Bribery scored 24%, showing how public officials and traditional leaders are offered items of value such as money, livestock, gifts, or favours, in exchange for giving land to the landless.
“Women lamented being poor and unwilling to give such bribes and that explains why some of them do not have land,” it reads.
“In the event that they had the money, they indicated that they would pay the bribes since that is the norm countrywide. In addition, 6% of the respondents accused public officials of demanding sexual favours in exchange for land.”
Sexual corruption had a 6% score while other factors had a 7% contribution.
According to the report, all of the victims who participated in the survey were accused of having settled illegally on the land, despite the land having been distributed to them by the authorities.
“Traditional leaders who had allocated them the land had done so in the names of their husbands who also did not have papers as proof of either legal occupancy or ownership,” it reads.
“As proof that their stay in the different areas where they were being evicted from was well known as accepted, they could do the following: Participated in all elections; included in the population census; there were Zanu PF party structures in their communities; registered for agricultural inputs. It came as a shock to them when they were being evicted from areas where they stayed for many years.”
The report said that women had been given the land by their traditional leaders, 33% having been allocated by chiefs, while a further 33% were allocated by village heads with the full knowledge of the ruling Zanu PF.
“Regardless of the illegal nature of the resettlement and the suffering they endured, there were no sanctions against the traditional leaders and the ruling Zanu PF political party officials who allocated them the land in question,” it reads.
