HARARE – Bona, the daughter of the late former president Robert Mugabe and her husband Simbarashe Mutsahuni are suing the government over a measure that led to the compulsory downsizing of their farm.

The couple lost tracts of land in Mazowe, Mashonaland province, after the lands ministry published Statutory Instrument (SI) 41 of 2020 which limited farm sizes in all agricultural regions.

Government said the measure was designed to accommodate more black farmers on prime land that was expropriated from white commercial farmers during fast-track land reforms that started in 1999.

In a High Court filing, Mutsahuni and his wife argue that the acquisition is unconstitutional.

“The applicant has a direct interest in this matter having been affected by the application of the provisions of SI 41 of 2020,” said Mutsahuni in his founding affidavit, citing lands minister Anxious Masuka and Attorney General Prince Machaya.

Mugabe’s son-in-law and his wife are owners of Sigaro farm measuring 1,804,9719 hectares in Mazowe district, which was allocated to them in June 2017.

Mutsahuni, who is the first applicant while Bona is second, argued that the new regulations were unlawful as they collided with SI 419 of 1999.

He added: “Pursuant to the promulgation of SI 41 of 2020, the minister has sought to pursue a rigid adherence to the new farm sizes stated therein. The SI has a negative retrospective effect of practically reducing land sizes for farms already vested rights in terms of already issued offer letters. In the given instance SI 41 of 2020 is being used to reduce our land size under an offer given by the minister in 2017.

“The SI, therefore, has a retrospective effect of reducing land sizes for farms already allocated to farmers and thereby interfering with already vested rights in terms of already issued offer letters.”

Mutsahuni and Bona submitted that it was unfair for government to seize parts of their property fore redistribution without considering their investment into the farm and utilization.

“It is the applicant’s submission that once the minister has issued any farmer with an offer letter over a specific piece of land with a specific size beyond that [which] the law prescribes, it is arbitrary for it to subsequently legislate in retrospect to negatively reduce the size of such land without regard to whether or not the concerned farmer is effectively utilising the farm and the extent of investment made by such farmer,” reads their affidavit.

“In the alternative, applicants submit that Section 21 of the Land Commission Act (Chapter 20’29) contravene the provisions of Sections 71 and Section 56 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe which respectively protect the right to property and equal protection and benefit of the law.”

The matter is yet to be heard.