GOVERNMENT is crafting a 50-year national land-use masterplan to halt unplanned developments on prime agricultural land, restoring order and guiding long-term economic growth.
This comes amid growing concerns over the proliferation of illegal settlements, unregulated business centres and infrastructure — including fuel stations — on land reserved for agriculture.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Rural Industrialisation and Economic Empowerment Indaba, which was held at the ongoing Zimbabwe International Trade Fair here yesterday, Lands and Rural Development Minister Vangelis Haritatos said the new policy will introduce strict land-use planning anchored on a comprehensive “border-to-border” classification system that clearly defines how land across Zimbabwe should be utilised.
“What we see is settlements haphazardly coming up, fuel stations being built on prime agricultural land, shopping centres coming out of nowhere. We need to bring everything into a systematic way of organisation,” he said.
Minister Haritatos said the master plan will go beyond short-term development cycles and adopt a long-term, intergenerational approach to land management.
“The master plan will be from border to border, where we come in and say urban areas remain urban areas. We must think not just for the next 10 years, but for the next 50 years so that we can put proper planning in place,” he said.
Under the new framework, the Government will establish a dedicated planning department within the Ministry of Lands to spearhead national land-use mapping, enforce compliance and coordinate development across sectors.
“We are going to have a proper department of planning within the Ministry of Lands. We need planners who can plan for generations to come,” said Minister Haritatos.
He added that consultations are already underway across key ministries, including Local Government and Housing, to align sectoral plans into a single national spatial vision.
“We are sitting down as the Government and asking: what is your vision for the next 50 years? Then we align all sectors into one national roadmap,” he said.
A key pillar of the plan will be to promote vertical urban development in order to curb urban sprawl and preserve fertile agricultural land.
“We do not want to be building horizontally. We want to be building vertically so we can ensure that we save good agricultural land for future generations,” he said.
The framework will also guide agro-industrial zoning, linking farming areas to processing, aggregation and markets to strengthen value chains.
Minister Haritatos said while development remains critical, it must be guided by structured planning to prevent irreversible loss of productive land.
“What we see is good in terms of development, but it must be systematic. We must identify areas for housing for the next 20 to 30 years and we must also protect prime agricultural land for production and value addition,” he said.
The master plan is expected to be developed within three to six months, beginning with initial technical documentation within 90 days.
“My plan is that at least within three months we should have some documents together, but the full masterplan will take between three to six months. It is not an easy job because we are dealing with all the land in Zimbabwe,” he said.
The initiative forms part of broader efforts to modernise land governance, improve coordination across Government and safeguard agricultural productivity in line with Vision 2030.
The move to craft a 50-year national land-use masterplan seeks to address the absence of a coherent, enforceable spatial planning framework linking land use to economic priorities, a long-standing structural weakness in Zimbabwe’s development trajectory.
For years, Zimbabwe has experienced rapid but largely uncoordinated expansion of settlements, businesses and infrastructure, often at the expense of prime agricultural land.
This trend has been driven by factors that include urban population growth, housing shortages, weak enforcement of planning regulations and, in some cases, the illegal parcelling out of land by local actors.
The result has been the gradual encroachment onto fertile land that is critical for food production and agro-industrial development.
Experts also note that the absence of clear land-use planning has created uncertainty for investors.
Investors in agriculture, mining, infrastructure and real estate require predictability regarding land tenure and permitted uses.
A “border-to-border” land classification system provides clarity, reduces disputes and can unlock investment by ensuring that land is allocated to its most productive use.
