Section 71: Property rights

(1) In this section—

“pension benefit” means a pension, annuity, gratuity or similar allowance which is

payable—

    (a) to any person from the Consolidated Revenue Fund;

    (b) in respect of a person’s service with an employer;

    (c) in respect of a person’s ill-health or injury; or

    (d) in respect of a person’s retirement through age or ill-health or any other reason;

and includes a commutation of such a pension, annuity, gratuity or allowance and a

refund of contributions paid towards such a pension, annuity, gratuity or allowance;

“property” means property of any description and any right or interest in property.

(2) Subject to section 72, every person has the right, in any part of Zimbabwe, to acquire, hold, occupy, use, transfer, hypothecate, lease or dispose of all forms of property, either individually or in association with others.

(3) Subject to this section and to section 72, no person may be compulsorily deprived of their property except where the following conditions are satisfied—

    (a) the deprivation is in terms of a law of general application;

    (b) the deprivation is necessary for any of the following reasons—

          (i) in the interests of defence, public safety, public order, public morality, public

health or town and country planning; or

          (ii) in order to develop or use that or any other property for a purpose beneficial to

the community;

    (c) the law requires the acquiring authority—

          (i) to give reasonable notice of the intention to acquire the property to everyone

whose interest or right in the property would be affected by the acquisition;

          (ii) to pay fair and adequate compensation for the acquisition before acquiring the

property or within a reasonable time after the acquisition; and

          (iii) if the acquisition is contested, to apply to a competent court before acquiring the

property, or not later than thirty days after the acquisition, for an order

confirming the acquisition;

    (d) the law entitles any person whose property has been acquired to apply to a competent

court for the prompt return of the property if the court does not confirm the

acquisition; and

    (e) the law entitles any claimant for compensation to apply to a competent court for the

determination of—

          (i) the existence, nature and value of their interest in the property concerned;

          (ii) the legality of the deprivation; and

          (iii) the amount of compensation to which they are entitled;

and to apply to the court for an order directing the prompt payment of any

compensation.

(4) Where a person has a vested or contingent right to the payment of a pension benefit, a law which provides for the extinction or diminution of that right is regarded, for the purposes of subsection (3), as a law providing for the compulsory acquisition of property.