08/03/2026
Laws Can and Must Change … But Only For Good Cause
Time flies! Only ‘yesterday’, it was New Year, yet Easter already beckons. Once it is Good Friday, Independence Day is nigh and before you blink, Labour Day, Africa Day, then August Heroes Days looms. By then, Year 2026 is tottering on proverbial extinction. At which time I usually ask myself: how far have my January 2026 objectives gone?
This year, at COMALISO we set ourselves to persuade our Government, Local Authorities and Traditional Leaders that laws on rural land ownership must be changed. Rural land is communal i.e. ‘owned by everyone’ however Government exerts control through traditional leaders. Unless you own property at a Growth Point, you cannot have title deeds in rural areas. Ten million citizens are rural, so implications of these laws are catastrophic, given our liberation war was about OWNERSHIP, not OCCCUPATION. Laws must change - for the good of our people.
In 1980, the Lancaster House Constitution served new laws for our freedom. In 2000, our Government changed commercial farm ownership laws to benefit indigenous Zimbabweans. We changed the Constitution 2013 to make it more democratic. Today, our Government seeks to change terms of office of both President and Parliament. Therefore laws change all the time.
Why am I stressing this?
A friend wants to build a school and clinic in her rural area. The Village Head insists investments will be public properties after completion. This applies to every investor in rural areas and there is legal precedence. She forwarded me a case entitled: “LANDMARK RULING: RURAL DISTRICT COUNCILS CANNOT SELL COMMUNAL LAND”
It says, “Madzivanyika & Anor v Buhera RDC & Ors (HH 493-24) … the High Court nullified a deal where the Buhera Rural District Council sold 40 hectares of communal land in Madzivanyika Village to a private trust”, because “The Communal Land Act [Chapter 20:04], Section 4 (Vesting of Land): All communal land is vested in the President of Zimbabwe. It is held in trust for the communal communities. Councils do not hold "title" to sell this land.” Moreover, the Traditional Leaders Act [Chapter 29:17], Sections 26–28 also confirms that “while Chiefs and Village Heads are custodians of the land and assist in allocation, they are legally barred from selling or "disposing" of communal land.” These laws also derive power from the Constitution, affirming that communal “land remains state-controlled and cannot be traded by local authorities as private property.”
If rural citizens cannot buy, sell, exchange and own land, it means there can never be title deeds-leveraged investment in two thirds of our country. This tragedy is of heinous proportions! Ten million rural citizens survive from subsistence farming in a country endowed with natural resources. There are no factories, shopping malls, sports academies, tarred roads, solar farms, restaurants, banks and technical colleges in our rural areas. Yet if our Government, through Constitution Amendment Number 3 can change not just terms of office but electoral cycles, then both Communal Land Act [Chapter 20:04], Section 4 (Vesting of Land) and Traditional Leaders Act [Chapter 29:17], Sections 26–28 must be repealed. This ‘allows’ ten million rural Zimbabweans to buy, sell and exchange land in order to exploit title deeds. Such freedom will attract billions of US dollars’ worth of investment, transforming their lives for the better, forever. Would such change of laws this year not be good for our country?
I am Rejoice Ngwenya, your Friend-in-Freedom.
Sunday, 8 March 2026, Ruwa, Zimbabwe.
