Land Patronage and Static Urban Boundaries in Zimbabwe Implications for Land Tenure Security

The political dysfunction that had come to characterize an imploding Zimbabwean economy is beyond dispute. This paper explores how a government that had become weakened in the face of a formidable opposition in urban areas turned to use land as a reward for supporters and as a means of luring new members to join the ruling party. It argues that land patronage has been used as a means for legitimating fledgling state rule while undermining the tenure security of the poor. Any policy to support the poor in post–crisis Zimbabwe will need to prioritize the idea of land as a social and economic asset rather than a political instrument of the state.