Zimbabwe’s contested large-scale land-based investment: The chisumbanje ethanol project

Abstract

Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform from 2000 onward yielded significant land transfers, but led the country to face debilitating production challenges and lack of investment in agriculture. Since then, Zimbabwe has not crafted a land policy, and depends on a raft of existing land laws (such as the Agricultural Land Settlement Act, Deeds Act and Surveying Act) for land management. These are old pieces of legislation that cannot resolve land-related problems facing rural people, such as the lack of clarity on land tenure, land valuation and compensation, disputes related to land access, poor land administration and weak land-use planning. These problems converge to make investment in land a mammoth challenge, which underscores the need for a clear land policy.