The government is considering a new verification process to curb illegal land sales and unlock the value of properties that don’t have formal documentation as part of a major overhaul of land ownership laws.
Speaking at the Land Tenure High-Level Stakeholder Breakfast Meeting held in Harare last week, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe said the reforms are intended to ensure that prospective buyers can establish who legally owns a property, whether it has been properly surveyed and planned, and whether it can be legally transferred before they commit funds.
“Government is not desirous of demolishing people’s homes and government hasn’t demolished any homes,” he said.
Garwe said many people caught up in land disputes were not illegal occupiers but citizens who had paid for stands from individuals with no legal authority to sell them.
As a result, unsuspecting buyers were investing substantial sums in houses only to discover that the land had never been legally allocated or transferred to them.
“We are saying these people have invested so much in building these houses and, in the process, they have created employment for the people that assisted them in building those houses,” he said.
The proposed system will place greater emphasis on verification before construction, ensuring that land offered for sale is legally recognised and can be transferred.
“Anyone who is procuring land, whether through a local authority or through the private sector, is doing so with land that he can verify that this is purchasable land, it has got legitimate title deeds, it was properly surveyed, properly planned,” Garwe said.
He said this would mark a significant shift from dealing with illegal settlements after they have developed to preventing fraudulent or irregular transactions at the point of sale, and will target land barons and illegal dealers who have exploited gaps in land administration and high demand for residential stands.
Garwe said the Land Tenure Committee, working with various government ministries, will help create an environment in which citizens can establish the legal status of land before purchasing.
The authorities will soon provide details on the proposed verification mechanism, including the institutions responsible for confirming ownership, survey and planning status, the process buyers must follow and whether a centralised system will allow the public to check land records before making payments.
The government says the reforms are particularly important given the proliferation of informal transactions, including so-called “sabhuku” deals in communal areas and the activities of urban land barons.
Garwe warned citizens against purchasing land from village heads, headmen or other individuals without first establishing their legal authority to dispose of it.
“Please go and tell the village heads and warn that sabhuku deals are attracting penalties and that penalty is imprisonment. The law does not allow masabhuku to sell land,” he said.
More: The Herald
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