<p>Like the rest of Southern Africa and Africa broadly, Zimbabwe is experiencing rapid urbanisation and urban expansion, often resulting in conflicts and contestations between local authorities and communal land holders who lose their land, livelihoods and social mooring, without their consent, consultation and guaranteed compensation. Yet literature on urban expansion induced land grabs especially those occurring in small towns and rural growth points in Zimbabwe remains blurred. I therefore use a social justice approach to analyse the contestations and conflicts between communal land holders and the local authority in Chipinge district’s Checheche growth point, south eastern Zimbabwe. Specifically I focus on the absence of procedural, recognition, distributive and restorative justice, while arguing how adopting a social justice lens can help engender just urban transitions and minimise domestic communal land grabs that threaten the lives, livelihoods and rural communities’ continuities. This qualitative study is based on data drawn from key informant interviews, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews and field observations in Checheche.</p>