Government has set up an inter-ministerial committee to flush out land barons and restore sanity in the distribution of the resource.
This was announced Friday by Lands minister Anxious Masuka at a meeting in Beitbridge with all provincial affairs ministers. The ministers’ meeting was preceded by a similar gathering by the county’s permanent secretaries over the same issue.
The high-level meetings come in the wake of chaotic scenes which have seen land allocated haphazardly both in run and urban areas.
Government recently ordered the eviction of all settlers illegally occupying State land, with most of the victims claiming they were allocated the land by land barons in exchange for a fee. In his address to the provincial ministers, Masuka said: “We expect to receive a report on developments from the Commissioner General of Police (Godwin Matanga) about the ongoing exercise on illegaly-settled people. There had been an increasing tendency by village heads to sell land. This was common in areas near urban areas and growth points or business centres.”
Police early this week announced that they have arrested 3 775 suspected land barons, with 985 convictions being made by the courts, while 3 360 cases are awaiting trial.
