Women still sidelined in land ownership

Lazarus Sauti

In Zimbabwe, land is power and in most parts of the country, particularly rural areas, this powerful property is owned and controlled by patriarchal lineages.

Men are the primary landholders, and women negotiate access to land through their male relations relying on fathers, brothers, husbands, uncles or male-dominated traditional authorities, a fact supported by the Human Rights Watch, in its recent report titled “You Will Get Nothing: Violations of Property and Inheritance of Widows in Zimbabwe”.

According to the report, women, especially widows are still vulnerable to age-old patriarchal practices which deny them the right of inheritance to their late spouses’ wealth and property.

Another study undertaken by the Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) reinforces that the ownership of land in Zimbabwe is still a male privilege despite a progressive Constitution that provides for equal treatment between boys and girls as well as men and women.

The study, with a focus on Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa, also exposes how corruption influences and affects women’s relationship to land in the country.

“Land corruption – defined as the use of political and economic power to subvert laid down rules for individual gain – intersects and entrenches already existing gendered land inequalities and creates new equalities.

“Due to the mucky land deal between the government and an investor in Chisumbanje, women are increasingly subjected to violence in the form of sextortion, which describes how women are extorted using sex as the currency of exchange,” adds the study.

“Sextortion involves the demand for sexual favours by those in power in return for accessing a good or service.”

In the study, male leaders are traditionally using their power in allocating land to demand sex in lieu of cash or customary land tenure provisions, and access to land by vulnerable women, mainly divorced, single and widowed, is therefore extremely difficult.

Political activist, Johannes Chikowore, says land corruption in Zimbabwe is so rife to the extent that some people have multiple farm ownership thanks to partisan land distribution.

He adds that women in the country are still being side-lined in land ownership and control due to factors such as lack of information on how they can acquire land, lack of access to finances, failure to get credit due to lack of collateral in addition to customary impositions.

Chikowore also blames land disputes, saying where conflicts occur, women are ten times more likely to be targeted.

“Reviews show that 40 percent of female landholders in resettlement areas continue to experience conflicts which are related to ownership of land and farm boundaries, plus eviction threats from their land in comparison to 4.1 percent for men,” he adds.

In a paper titled ‘Women and Land in Zimbabwe’, University of Zimbabwe sociology professor, Rudo Barbra Gaidzanwa, women in communal areas have weaker property rights and tensure security and as such are under immense pressure to migrate to towns and cities in search of land.

She, therefore, urges members of parliament (MPs) to sensitise their constituents about the value of land as well as need for collateral.

Most women, avows Gaidzanwa, especially widows and divorced women are losing up land; accordingly, there is need for information on acquisition of bankable land and collateral as well as control of the land since women in communal areas are mostly the ones tilling the land.

A policy brief by the Southern African Parliamentary Support (SAPST) titled ‘Gender and Food Security in Zimbabwe’, also notes that women are the backbone of the smallholder agricultural sector as they feed the nation by being the main producers and processors of food.

“In Zimbabwe, 70 percent of agricultural production is provided by women as they make up 70 percent of the rural population, but in spite of women doing most of the agricultural work, they still face challenges in owning and controlling the land,” notes SAPST.

Despite women making up 70 percent of the rural population, only 18 percent of beneficiaries of A1 land reform and 12 percent under A2 are women – which the government considers falls short of the gender parity ideal, notes the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development Gender Policy (MWAGCD Gender Policy).

Since women play a crucial role in economic development, declares journalist and gender activist, Garikai Mangongera, they should be empowered with land.

“Women should be empowered with land. Without doubt, when women are secure on their land, they have the incentive as well as the ability to invest in that land, that is turning farming into a viable business,” he says.

Mangongera adds: “Women with land have the capacity to mobilise seed, fertiliser and credit and they can also join small-scale producer groups through which they can mobilise further resources, undertake collective marketing for better bargaining power, or procure inputs as a group.”

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) adds that when women have equal access, ownership and control over land and other reproductive resources, their crop yields increase by 20 to 30 percent.

To build more resilient communities, Transparency International Zimbabwe recommends the need for key actors to be bold for change and claim transparency in land deals in line with Sustainable Development Goal 16 which calls for the need of any form of development to be inclusive and be accountable.

Private land investors and the government, adds the TIZ, should also invest in social impact assessment to ascertain the impact of their investment on community livelihoods as well as social relations.

Chikowore, just like the Transparent International Zimbabwe, also urges all investments in land to be in line with the principles of Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), which guarantee that a community has the right to give or withhold its consent to proposed projects that may affect the land they customarily own, occupy or otherwise use.

Human rights activist, Simbarashe Namusi, encourages the government to close the gap between law and practice simply by implementing plans, strategies and policies that promote women’s access to and control of productive resources such as land.

“The government, at every level, should be guided by Section 56 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which provides for “equality and non-discrimination”, and rectify gender discrimination and imbalances resulting from past policies and practices by considering a target for women’s land ownership.

“It should also harmonise policies and laws governing land, mining, the environment and local government in a way that protects women,” he says.

Since lack of proper documentation on land ownership stimulates conflicts over land ownership and use, says Chikowore, the government and other key stakeholders should provide women with proper documentation for their land over and above empowered on how to register land in their names.

Sharing the same views, gender activist Anoziva Marindire, adds that girls and women should be capacitated with technical skills so that they can at least read and interpret legal documents that support proof of land ownership.

“Institutions such as the Gender Commission and the Ministry of Lands and Rural Settlement, as well as other critical stakeholders should be involved in conscientising girls and women on land ownership rights and other policies critical in ending any form of conflict,” she adds.

Development practitioner, Cynthia Chanengeta, says in sync with the provisions of the country’s supreme law, especially Section 17 which articulates the question of gender balance and Section 80 which delineates the rights of women, there is a serious need for a clear legal framework that not only establishes, but protects and propagates inheritance rights of girls and women.

“Policy makers should come up with plans and strategies that support Sections 17 and 80 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and clearly spelt out local, regional and international legal frameworks that enable girls and women to have an equal say as well as footing with boys and men when it comes to land control and ownership as well as land tenure.

As for traditional leader, Zefa Mutauto, men, especially traditional leaders like him, as opinion leaders, need to be seriously involved in awareness campaigns to effectively fight cultural practices that are halting women to own and control land.

“Honestly, women in this country are still battling for equal rights, but patriarchy is reigning supreme at institutions that are supposed to end this disparity.

“As traditional leaders, we should therefore be involved in awareness programmes that empower women and end land and other civil conflicts that are halting development in our communities,” he says.

Chanengeta adds that since most leaders in the country are men, education is an effective tool that can be used to promote a just society where resources are accessed, owned and controlled by every member of the society not on the basis of gender.

“Policy makers should also use the Maputo Protocol to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights on Women, the revised Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Gender and Development as well as the country’s Constitution to promote women’s access to and control over productive resources such as land and guarantee their right to property,” she sums up.

Lazarus Sauti is a journalist and blogger based in Harare.