ZANU PF’s election promise to regularise informal settlements is moving at a snail’s pace, with only 11 000 title deeds issued in Harare’s sprawling Epworth suburb since 2023, has NewsDay learnt.
The ruling party dangled title deeds for votes ahead of the August 2023 elections, promising to regularise over 80 000 illegal settlements, where tenants faced the risk of having their structures demolished.
A title deed is a formal document legally defining how a property is allotted by an authority, owned and transferred by the holder.
Thousands of dwellers have no title deeds to the land they were allocated by suspected land barons, mostly linked to the ruling party.
Ahead of the 2023 elections, the Cabinet endorsed the Kwangu/Ngakwami Presidential Title Deeds Programme Consortium to provide the financial and technical support required for the issuance of the title deeds.
Lands minister Anxious Masuka, who was the acting leader of government business in Parliament, told the National Assembly on Wednesday that only 11 000 title deeds have been distributed in Epworth.
“The regularisation of such stands is important and the issue of human dignity should be addressed,” Masuka said after he was grilled by lawmakers on progress made in the regularisation exercise.
“In Epworth, there are a few people who were given title deeds, but we were told in the meeting that we held recently that there are 11 000 title deeds which have been distributed and that the team is now going to Caledonia and other new residential suburbs.”
- Dump the failed Zimdollar: MPs
- Edutainment Mix: A “piece” of mindedness on the right to opine about the arts sector
- Zanu PF title deed bait misfires
Keep Reading
Masuka said they needed to establish why settlers were being issued with eviction notices yet the government said it is regularising such illegal settlements.
In 2020 and 2021, dozens of structures and informal settlements were destroyed, leaving home-owners and informal traders counting heavy losses.
In recent years, Harare and Chitungwiza municipalities have adopted a tough stance against illegal structures that have mushroomed, especially on wetlands.
A Justice Tendai Uchena land commission of inquiry report presented to Mnangagwa in December 2019 alleged that land developers, housing co-operative leaders and politically-connected people illegally sold US$3 billion worth of urban State land to create unregulated settlements.
According to the government, Harare Metropolitan province has 52 000 houses built in illegal settlements, with 25 000 of the structures located in Chitungwiza, as of 2023.
Critics have accused authorities of rushing to regularise illegal structures in areas controlled by the ruling Zanu PF party as a vote-buying gimmick.
