Marondera council in shady land grab

A prime 468-hectare farm on the outskirts of Marondera has become the center of a bitter dispute after top municipal officials allegedly seized the property without following due process, armed with a forged offer letter purportedly signed by former Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere. The rightful owner, war veteran John Fadzisayi Jani, claims his land - allocated under the land reform programme in 2007 - has been unlawfully taken from him.

Investigations by Truth Diggers reveal that Jani was granted Elmswood Farm on February 20, 2007, with genuine government-issued documentation confirming his ownership. In a January 27, 2025 letter, Obert Jiri, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, reaffirmed Jani's legal ownership, emphasizing that no lawful transfer to the Local Government Ministry or Marondera Municipality had occurred.

Despite this clear stance, Marondera Municipality officials are said to have been distributing residential stands on the property since November 2024 under questionable circumstances. Sources familiar with the matter say the municipality is using a fraudulent offer letter with Kasukuwere's name to justify the seizure, a document the Ministry of Lands denies having sanctioned.

"This is a straight-up land grab," said one insider. "The farm was never officially handed over by the Lands Ministry, and there was no Cabinet approval or gazetted order permitting the conversion of this agricultural land to urban use as required by law."

Jani expressed deep frustration over the situation. "I invested heavily in this land and had plans to develop it into residential stands to create jobs and ease the housing shortage. Now, my project has been stolen and is being executed illegally, without transparency or accountability," he said.

The war veteran alleges that municipal officials bulldozed the process, pegging the land and selling stands to unsuspecting buyers, disrupting his farming activities and investment valued at over US$368,000.

Jani has filed a court application against Marondera Municipality, town clerk Rinashe Nyamuzihwa, and mayor Chengetai Murova seeking an urgent order to halt the illegal occupation and land allocations. Court papers accuse the respondents of forcibly taking the farm on November 1, 2024, proceeding with pegging, allocating stands, and receiving payments from beneficiaries despite having no ownership rights.

The controversial letter the municipality relies on, dated September 16, 2015, and allegedly signed by Kasukuwere, is described as forged in the court documents. "It could not override the original agricultural offer letter issued to Jani in 2007," the papers state. Additionally, it highlights that no official handover from the Agriculture Ministry to the Local Government Ministry took place.

Land rights activists say the Marondera case fits a troubling national pattern where politically connected individuals and local authorities exploit forged or irregular documents to unlawfully seize land from rightful owners under the land reform programme.

Transparency International Zimbabwe recently noted that weak coordination and lack of accountability among government departments fuel corruption and land disputes. Political analyst Vivid Gwede said the abuse of authority in land administration has severely damaged Zimbabwe's agrarian reform and economic productivity.

"The land question in Zimbabwe has become a tragic example of politicisation gone wrong," Gwede said. "What began as a legitimate effort to reclaim land has morphed into a system riddled with patronage and abuse. The government must depoliticise land management and ensure proper issuance of title deeds."

Requests for comment sent to Marondera Mayor Chengetai Murova and town clerk Rinashe Nyamuzihwa were not answered by press time.