By Mary Jane Ncube, Farai Shone Mutondoro and Manase Chiweshe
As political parties gear up for the 2018 national elections in Zimbabwe, urban land appears to be emerging as an important campaigning tool for ruling party Zanu PF.
Amid recent mass public protests against corruption, economic decline and an import ban on basic commodities, young people who showed loyalty to the party werepromised land.
By Mary Jane Ncube, Farai Shone Mutondoro and Manase Chiweshe
In Zimbabwe land is power. And when this power is abused to score political points or amass wealth illegally, the most vulnerable citizens are the hardest hit. In the traditionally patriarchal communities of Zimbabwe, these citizens are most often women.
At last month’s International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC) in Malaysia, I co-hosted a panel on land grabbing and corruption with Transparency International. This global annual event gathers together governments, civil society, enforcement agencies, journalists and others to discuss ways of tackling corruption. This year’s IACC focused on ending impunity – a problem which has helped make land grabbing prolific and very hard to tackle.
