District of Goromonzi, Zimbabwe – Darlington Mutakura fought with the housing system of the Goromonzi district for almost 20 years. With a dream to have a house one day in this semi-urban area near Harare, he faithfully paid his annual costs of US $ 13 on the rural district waiting list for a decade after having moved to the region in 2007.
Finally, hope came, not from the council but from his sister. She had long acquired land of traditional chiefs in her village in the region, about half an hour drive east of Harare. From that, she cut a game for him.
In 2017, Mutakura built a small two -room chalet on the field and finally thought that he would no longer have to pay rent.
But five years later, the council officials slapped him with an official letter: “Opinion to reorganize the illegal regulations and the payment of penalty fees.”
Mutakura was not the only resident to receive this letter. The Council letter threatened to demolish the structures and move households for what it called good planning in the region. The Council considered Mutakura and others who obtained land through the traditional system such as “illegal settlers”.
The traditional method of acquiring land, like that of Mutakura, is deeply woven in the rural traditions of Zimbabwe and protected by law. However, he and others each charged a penalty of US $ 1,500. Some village chiefs, including Christopher Tafirenyika, warned their villagers not to pay the sanctions because the council had not hired village chiefs and it was not clear what the money served.
This warning sounded true for Mutakura, who ended up paying the fine but still does not know if he will be able to stay on the country he says he has legally acquired.
“It doesn’t make sense to pay a fine of $ 1,500 and have nothing,” he said.
While the region passes from rural to urban, traditional land distribution systems are faced with increasing pressure, creating conflicts on land ownership. Abrupt penalties such as those imposed in the Goromonzi region come in communities that already have trouble increasing economic instability.
A fine of $ 1,500 US is out of reach of many of those who live in this area. According to the Latest data availableThe average monthly household income in Rural Zimbabwe in 2024 was US $ 88, a drop compared to US $ 116 in 2023.
Even if a regulation is deemed illegal, a national law fix the penalty to US $ 300 or up to one year in prison. It does not allow a load of US $ 1,500 anywhere.
A delicate balance
Throughout rural Africa, the land traditionally crosses heritage, customary allowances or local purchase, and these processes were led by traditional village chiefs.
The lands do not belong individually, but held collectively according to traditional practices and the line, with the access regulated by the customary rule of the community, explains Dzikamai Bere, national director of Zimbabwe Human Rights Association.
According to the law on traditional chiefs of 1998, the chiefs and the chiefs oversee the rights of settlement and are also responsible for admitting new settlers in the fields they manage. In addition, all land allocation and subdivision must be made with the approval of the village chief.
Traditional leaders have always had the main power to distribute land, following customary rules while working with the Council of Local Authorities. The Council officially grants land use rights, but – under the Communal Lands Act which codifies these unwritten rules – the government organization must work with traditional leaders and respect local customs.
This delicate balance between tradition and the government once ruled on rural land rights in Zimbabwe.
“(In the 1980s), the village court would meet and find a place for someone who needed land. We will bring the case to the chief, will discuss it with other men from the village, we ensure that we respect the limits of the land, then register with the rural district council under the teaching of the chief, ”explains Tafirenyika.
But around the early 2000sTafirenyika says he watched this system start to collapse. Land management in Zimbabwe has undergone significant changes due to the government’s accelerated agro reform program, which aimed to redistribute the land of white farmers to black Zimbabweans, in particular those who live in municipal areas managed by traditional leaders.
Tafirenyika says that the rural district council now allocates land to Goromonzi and that traditional leaders are helpless – even if the laws that allow people to obtain land by traditional route have not changed.
Mirriam Kwenda, 70, inherited his lands in his family. After the death of her husband, the ground nourished her three children. Now he disappears before his eyes. She says that part of what was her agricultural land is now subdivided into housing that the Council sells.
“Now the council has fixed all the land, and I do not know which one is mine,” she said.
And Mutakura is concerned about whether he will have anything to leave for his children.
“We live a life borrowed, a life of fear,” he says.