Supreme Court blocks Agriculture Minister from cancelling Chombo’s 99-year lease 

The Supreme Court has stopped Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka from cancelling a 99-year farming lease held by former cabinet minister Ignatius Chombo, ruling that the move was unlawful with serious implications for land tenure security and investor confidence.

In a recent judgment, Justice Joseph Musakwa, with Justices Chinembiri Bhunu and George Chiweshe concurring, ruled that the State could only terminate a 99-year lease in strict accordance with its terms and that, in this case, the government had gone further by irrevocably waiving any right to cancel the lease for 20 years after entering into a long-term investment agreement tied to the land.

“The Government is strictly bound by the terms of a 99-year lease and may only cancel it in accordance with the express provisions of the agreement,” Musakwa said.

The dispute centred on Subdivision 1 of Allan Grange Farm in Zvimba, Mashonaland West, measuring more than 3,000 hectares and held under a 99-year lease by Chombo.

In 2021, Masuka moved to cancel the lease, citing the need to accommodate other occupants on the farm and to allocate land to Chombo’s former wife, Marian, following the couple’s divorce. The Minister relied on clause 20 of the lease, which permits the State to repossess land for limited public purposes such as defence, public safety or town planning.

The Supreme Court rejected that interpretation, saying clause 20 could not be stretched into a blanket power of cancellation.

“To treat clause 20 as a catch-all power of cancellation amounts to rewriting the contract,” Justice Musakwa said, adding that such an approach “subverts the certainty of tenure that 99-year leases are meant to secure.”

The court held that outright cancellation of a lease is governed exclusively by clause 22.1, which lists specific grounds such as breach of lease conditions or failure to pay rentals, none of which applied to Chombo. It further ruled that there was no lawful basis for cancelling a lease to pursue an unresolved, private divorce-related claim.

A decisive factor in the ruling was a 2018 tripartite investment agreement between the State, Chombo and Pepary Investments (Pvt) Ltd, which envisaged a 20-year agricultural investment programme with a projected 10-year break-even period.

Justice Musakwa said the lease conferred “a bundle of rights, including security of tenure for 99 years,” which Chombo had relied upon when entering the long-term investment deal.

“The State, having induced reliance and long-term investment, cannot act inconsistently to the detriment of those who relied upon its undertaking,” the court said, invoking the doctrines of waiver and estoppel and finding that the Government had waived any right to cancel the lease during the 20-year investment window.

The court was also critical of the Minister’s reliance on claims by Marian Chombo, noting that any entitlement she may have had to the land remained subject to determination in separate matrimonial proceedings.

“The doctrine of privity of contract restricts the enforcement of contractual rights to contracting parties,” Justice Musakwa said, adding that the Minister’s actions amounted to an encroachment into judicial territory.

The Supreme Court also faulted the High Court for dismissing Chombo’s earlier application, saying it had exceeded its mandate by making conclusive factual and legal findings instead of confining itself to declaratory relief.

The appeal was allowed with costs, the High Court judgment was set aside, and the court issued declaratory orders barring Minister Masuka from cancelling or subdividing Allan Grange Farm for a 20-year period beginning on March 14, 2018. _*NewZimbabwe*_