LAND ACQUISITION AMENDMENT ACT, 2000 (ZIMBABWE)

Since Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 the issue of land reform and, in particular, the issue of land acquisition and redistribution has seldom been off the political agenda. For the first ten years of independence there were constitutional constraints on the acquisition of land for resettlement purposes, but the National Land Policy of 1990 set out plans for an accelerated programme of resettlement. In order to achieve its ambitious targets the government of Zimbabwe saw the need to strengthen its powers of compulsory acquisition both by amending section 16 of the Constitution (which provided strong protection against the compulsory acquisition of property) and by enacting the Land Acquisition Act to provide a statutory basis for the new policy. These reforms were extremely controversial both inside and outside the country and a clause excluding the right to fair compensation for expropriated land was dropped partly in response to international pressure.