THE Lands ministry on Wednesday admitted that the recurrent land disputes were a result of poor co-ordination among ministry officials and their Local Government counterparts.
This was revealed at the Zimbabwe Land and Agrarian Network (ZLAN) annual policy dialogue held in the capital on Wednesday.
Addressing delegates, Fungai Svondo from the Lands ministry said land disputes could be avoided if there was proper co-ordination among government departments.
“As the Lands ministry, we manage and administer land in the country. I want to say there are a lot of disputes between the Ministry of Lands and Local Government (ministry). This is why we have challenges in some of the land disputes,” Svondo said.
Svondo made the remarks after several women claimed that they were being evicted by their male counterparts.
ZLAN representative Nyasha Chiwawarirwa said the organisation was recording increasing cases of land disputes.
“Traditionally we hold our annual policy meeting every year where we provide farmers and organisations a platform to share their ideas and interface with policymakers to map strategies on what can be done to address some of the challenges to do with land and what can be recommended in policy making,” she said.
ZLAN is a membership-based local network of farmers, farmer groups, farmer organisations and researchers.
There are several reports of beneficiaries of the land reform programme being evicted to pave way for politically-connected persons.
Government land audits have proved that land barons with links to Zanu PF are behind most of the land disputes.
Source NewsDay
