BY MUNYARADZI BLESSING DOMA
A report by the Zimbabwe Women Against Corruption Trust (ZWACT), has revealed that customary law, traditional norms and values, are the leading obstacles which limit women’s access to land.
The report titled, “Gendered impact of land corruption and displacements on women’s access to social-economic rights in Zimbabwe”, follows a research which was conducted in Masvingo and Manicaland Province.
The research which was led by Allan T. Chaumba, was commissioned to interrogate the extent to which women enjoy their access to land rights in Zimbabwe with special attention given to victims of the 2023/4 internal displacements in the Masvingo and Manicaland Provinces.
ZWACT Executive Director, Sandra Matendere, said while the research was carried out in the two provinces, it’s a fact that displacements are happening in various other provinces, hence when resources permit, they will move to other areas.
Major findings from the research were largely drawn from a sample of at least 500 women constituting 95 percent of the respondents reached out, whilst an insignificant 5 percent were male participants.
“Customary law, traditional norms and values are leading obstacles at 45 percent, followed by corruption at 19 percent, inadequate legal and policy frameworks at 9 percent and lack of implementation of existing legal and policy frameworks at 9 percent.
“In addition there appears to be a lack of political will at 8 percent, to address these challenges considering the fact that they existed during the pre-independence era and the same still exist 44 years after Zimbabwe Independence in 1980,” read the report.
The report further states that forms of corruption limiting women’s access to land rights, include favouritism.
“Favouritism at 35 percent, came prominent as the most common form of corruption, which involves showing preferential treatment or giving unfair advantages to some individuals or groups based on personal relationships rather based on real need for land.
“This leads to inefficiencies and incompetence in decision-making processes.
“This is followed by nepotism at 29 percent in which individuals in positions of power or authority show preferential treatment to their family members of friends often at the expense of more deserving and qualified candidates.
“Bribery scored 24 percent in which public officials and traditional leaders are offered items of value (such as money, livestock, gifts or favors) to give land to the landless.
“Women lamented being poor and unwilling to give such bribes and that explains why some of them do not have land even if they wanted to pay the bribes.
“In addition, 6 percent of the respondents accused public officials of demanding sexual favours in exchange for land,” added the report.
It was also revealed that in terms of land ownership, women still lag behind with only 2 percent claiming to be owning the land where they stay and also where they were evicted from in Manicaland and Masvingo Province.
And it was added that 98 percent did not own the land.
“Traditional leaders who had allocated them the land, had done so in the names of their husbands who also did not have papers as proof of either legal occupancy or ownership.”
Comment on the issue of young women’s access to land, Lillian Tinotenda Muhwandavaka, ZINASU National Gender Secretary, said it was really difficult for a girl child who wants land.
“As young women we are being denied access to land because they feel we don’t deserve because we are young women and there are a lot of reasons that are given.
“If you look at it, only 3 percent is representing us in Parliament and as we all know, we have our young women who should be representing us concerning this issue.
“So as young women we are really being treated unfairly, we have nowhere to air all our grievances.
“And you should know that no one understands the situation better than the person who is affected by that situation, so we need young women who amplify our voices concerning this.
“There is need for a serious policy change so that young women are empowered to have equal access to land, just like their male counterparts,” said Muhwandavaka.
She added: “because if you look at it from a rural perspective, young woman are not expected to say that they want land because they are told they can only access this when they are married.
“We have to give them the space which allows them to grow economically in different spaces, so this is something that is affecting us as young women; let’s consider young women.
“Young women need to be considered so that that they are part of the decision making processes so that we can realize our full potential.”
