News / National
Cash for land deals backfire
29 Sep 2014 at 08:10hrs | Views
The Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement is investigating seven officials from various provinces for allegedly demanding payment from people seeking to be allocated land.
The matter has since been reported to the police.
There have been numerous cases and complaints against lands officers' illegally allocating land in return for money.
This has prompted the Government to attach the National Land Inspectorate, mandated to receive and investigate reports on land-related corruption, at the ministry.
Lands officers implicated in the corruption comprise two from the Midlands' Mvuma District, two from Makonde and Hurungwe districts in Mashonaland West, two from Umguza District in Matabeleland and one at the ministry's head office in Harare.
Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora told The Herald over the weekend that several district administrators and headmen had also been implicated in corrupt land activities.
Mombeshora said the corrupt officials mainly targeted those in the Diaspora who had little knowledge on land allocation and possession, with the deals arranged over the phone and transactions going through middlemen.
The matter has since been reported to the police.
There have been numerous cases and complaints against lands officers' illegally allocating land in return for money.
This has prompted the Government to attach the National Land Inspectorate, mandated to receive and investigate reports on land-related corruption, at the ministry.
Lands officers implicated in the corruption comprise two from the Midlands' Mvuma District, two from Makonde and Hurungwe districts in Mashonaland West, two from Umguza District in Matabeleland and one at the ministry's head office in Harare.
Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora told The Herald over the weekend that several district administrators and headmen had also been implicated in corrupt land activities.
Mombeshora said the corrupt officials mainly targeted those in the Diaspora who had little knowledge on land allocation and possession, with the deals arranged over the phone and transactions going through middlemen.
Source - The Herald
