Zim govt won't alter 99-year leases

Published: 03 April 2014

Government will not amend the law to make 99-year leases commercially transferable just to suit the interest of banks.

Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement Douglas Mombeshora in an interview yesterday said the provision that resettlement land is not commercially transferable was provided for in the Constitution.

He said this will not be amended to suit the interests of banks.

This comes when there has been little progress in efforts to make 99-year leases for resettlement land acceptable as security to enable farmers to use the land as collateral for bank loans.

"The Constitution of Zimbabwe says land ownership will be by way of 99-year leases.

"Banks are saying that they are not going to accept leases if they are not transferable.

"We are not going to amend that Constitution.

"In other countries, leases can be tradable as security, but here it is not the case," the Lands and Resettlement Minister said.

The minister singled out banks such as Barclays Bank Zimbabwe and Standard Chartered Zimbabwe as some of the foreign-owned financial institutions not willing to support farmers.

The minister said Government's preoccupation was to protect the farmer from being disposed of their rights to land if 99-year leases become saleable.

He said Government will not rush into rubber stamping banks' proposals to make 99-year leases commercially transferable.

He said it was clear that foreign banks were reluctant to support farmers citing the issues of collateral, but banks such as CBZ Bank and Agribank have given unwavering support to farmers.

Against this background, the minister said Government was busy looking at three proposals submitted by different groups on how farmers who fail to repay loans can be assisted.

He said that the issue of 99-year leases is still work in progress.

"We have about three proposals from different groups and we have given them to our legal department to have a look at," the minister said.

- The Herald

Tags: Lease,