Title deeds programme goes national
CLOSE to 1 000 homeowners in Harare have been issued with title deeds under the Presidential Title Deeds and Settlement Regularisation Programme following its launch in April this year.
The programme, targeting more than 1,5 million homeowners, has now been rolled out countrywide.
A regional office was recently opened in Bulawayo province. Other regional offices will be progressively opened.
Mrs Virginia Mabhiza, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs — which is leading the high-level inter-ministerial committee on the regularisation of settlements — said: “Government is rolling out the Presidential Title Deeds (and Settlement Regularisation) Programme in other provinces following its successful launch in Epworth.
“The countrywide rollout of the programme started with the taskforce setting up an office in Bulawayo Metropolitan, with the intention of repeating the process in all provinces.
“The command centre, established as a one-stop shop for processing title deeds, is operational and about 1 000 title deeds have been processed, and 90 percent have collected their documents.
“Approximately 1,5 million properties are set to receive title deeds under this programme, which will include growth points.”
The Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency, she said, has also completed mapping most of the settlements set to undergo regularisation.
“The programme will cover other suburbs in Harare, Bulawayo, Mutare, Marondera, Bindura, Chinhoyi, Kwekwe, Kadoma and
Masvingo, including growth points,” added Mrs Mabhiza.
“The targeted settlements have had their layout plans approved and surveys also approved. Engineers’ diagrams on water, sewer and road infrastructure have also been expedited. This is a national programme that requires everyone’s support and will unlock enormous value for citizens.”
Suburbs mapped under the first phase include Epworth, Eyecourt, Retreat, Caledonia, Hopley in Harare, Gimboki Farm (Mutare), Cowdray Park (Bulawayo) and Victoria Range (Masvingo).
In a separate interview, Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said regularisation of informal settlements was progressing.
“You are aware that we have got so many informal settlements in towns and cities.
“Because of separate development that we inherited from the colonisers, we had areas which were called high-density suburbs, whose houses were predominantly owned by local authorities, and local authorities were leasing to Zimbabweans,” he said.
“They have been paying rentals for almost 40 to 50 years. Essentially, they have bought the houses. So, the title deeds project is starting with those ones. Parallel to that, we are now looking at informal settlements like Caledonia, Epworth, so that, as we provide roads, water and sewer, we are also providing requisite paperwork, which are title deeds, so that people have security of tenure and economic inclusion.”