The large billboard near Goromonzi High School, Mashonaland East, carries a stark warning: it is illegal to sell and buy land under the Communal Lands Act.
Yet 40km east of Harare, this prohibition is routinely ignored as ultra-modern brick houses compete cheek by jowl with simple rural dwellings in an uneasy landscape of legal contradiction.
Goromonzi communal lands present a district in transition — neither fully urban nor rural.
Fancy suburban houses sit haphazardly between village thatched huts and tiny farm-brick houses, creating an awkward settlement pattern with no coherent planning. Mashona cows, goats, vehicles and humans mingle along dusty footpaths in a scene replicated across Seke, Domboshava, and other communal areas surrounding Harare.
This transformation stems from a thriving illegal land market. Original occupants hive off family and ancestral lands, selling to land seekers attracted by ease of purchase, cheap prices, proximity to Harare, and fertile soils.
The buyers range from local Zimbabweans to foreigners willing to pay “a few thousand US dollars” to village heads and chiefs.
How Sabhuku deals work
These transactions follow no scientific or legal standards.
Land measurement relies on crude foot-stride counting methods unchanged since 367 BC.
Parties may or may not enter written agreements, but typically the process involves payment to the seller, introduction to the village head and additional payment, and declaration of kinship ties.
The declaration is often fabricated, allowing foreigners to become closely related to the local people. There is optional registration with the chief, depending on local protocols.
No title deeds or valid cessions are possible since all transactions violate the Communal Lands Act, which restricts communal land to kinship-based allocation.
Under Section 8, communal land cannot be sold, and occupancy rights cannot be ceded without proper authority.
The illegal sales breach multiple statutory provisions as follows:
Communal Lands Act
Section 3 vests communal land in the President, while Section 8 prohibits sales and unauthorised transfers. Only the Rural District Council, after consultation with traditional leaders, can allocate land rights.
Traditional Leaders Act
Chiefs and headmen lack authority to authorise land sales, though they may facilitate proper allocation procedures.
Regional Town and Country Planning Act
The haphazard settlements violate planning laws, creating future infrastructure nightmares.
Despite these clear prohibitions, enforcement remains minimal, with the Government appearing to turn blind eyes to the practice.
Immediate appeal vs long-term consequences
Superficially, these arrangements appear beneficial—willing buyer meets willing seller for unused land.
Many plots belong to deceased relatives, emigrants, or daughters who married and moved away, making sales seem logical rather than letting land lie idle.
For buyers, particularly those who could never otherwise own land, these transactions provide homeownership without administrative costs and bureaucratic hurdles that plague formal land acquisition.
However, this market creates serious long-term problems such as erosion of traditional security.
Rural homes have historically served as social security for Zimbabwe’s black population—a guaranteed fallback during crisis, retirement, or urban economic difficulties.
This safety net is being permanently sold away.
There is also the prospect of future homelessness as communal land becomes scarce and traditional support systems collapse; urban homelessness may increase dramatically.
Also, social fragmentation as diverse communities with no traditional ties or common interests compete for limited resources, creating potential for conflict and rural crime. There are also planning disasters: Haphazard settlement without infrastructure planning creates future nightmares for service delivery and development
The Government faces a complex challenge.
Strict enforcement would displease thousands of current occupants and create humanitarian crises. Yet continued tolerance undermines the rule of law and threatens Zimbabwe’s traditional land tenure system.
The phenomenon reflects deeper failures in formal land delivery systems. Where legal mechanisms fail to meet genuine housing needs, illegal markets emerge to fill the void.
Rather than continued prohibition without enforcement, Zimbabwe needs legislative reform to amend communal land legislation to create regulated markets that protect traditional rights while allowing controlled transfers.
There should be regularisation programmes and policies that develop mechanisms to legitimise existing settlements through proper planning and infrastructure provision.
Institutional coordination is also needed to strengthen partnerships between rural district councils, traditional leaders, and central government to manage land allocation transparently.
Also, community education, which deploys paralegals and extension officers to educate communities about legal implications before transactions occur, should be fostered.
Lastly, alternative land delivery accelerates formal residential land systems and reduce pressure on communal areas.
The illegal communal land market represents rational responses to genuine needs within a dysfunctional formal system.
However, the current laissez-faire approach risks destroying traditional safety nets while creating future social problems. Policymakers must move beyond prohibition to pragmatic regulation that balances individual needs with collective security.
The billboard’s warning in Goromonzi remains relevant, but only if backed by viable legal alternatives and consistent enforcement.
Without urgent intervention, Zimbabwe risks losing both the rule of law and the traditional land tenure system that has provided security for generations. The time for honest discussion about communal land reform has arrived.
This article was taken from The Herald. Miriam Tose Majome is a lawyer and a Commissioner with the Zimbabwe Media Commission. She writes in her personal capacity and can be contacted on mtmajome@gmail.com