The call comes in light of the ongoing and impending evictions of villagers from their ancestral lands across the country.
MACRAD has been actively advocating for land and property rights for the Chilonga people, who are predominantly Shangani and are facing eviction from their ancestral land to pave way for a lucerne grass project.
The government of Zimbabwe, through Statutory Instrument 50 of 2021 ordered about 12 000 Chilonga villagers from the lowveld to vacate 13 000 hectares of land to pave way for the grass farming project.
MACRAD continues to mobilise villagers against the evictions and the state has responded with brute force with ordinary villagers, civil society leaders and traditional leaders being targeted.
In August this year, MACRAD was part of organisations that signed a petition to SADC Heads of States in which one of the demands was to ensure respect for land and property rights across the SADC region.
“As MACRAD we welcome and fully support the 2026 SADC People’s Summit Communiqué and its call for a people-centred approach to regional development. In line with our work, we particularly emphasise the need for stronger protection of the land and property rights of minority and vulnerable communities, especially against arbitrary evictions and displacement in the name of mining, industrialisation and development,” read a statement from MACRAD.
The organisation added that development must never come at the expense of people’s rights, livelihoods and dignity.
” Communities must have secure and equitable rights over their land and property, and their voices must be respected in decisions affecting their lives.
We therefore emphasise the principle of people over profit, not profit over people. Multinational and extractive companies should not be allowed to acquire or exploit community land without meaningful participation and the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of affected communities.
SADC Member States must ensure that mining and industrialisation are grounded in human rights, transparency, accountability, fair benefit-sharing and environmental protection. Regional development should improve the lives of ordinary people rather than deepen displacement, inequality and dispossession,” read the statement
Post published in: Agriculture