"11 000 Epworth Residents Receive Title Deeds"
The government has issued 11,000 title deeds in Harare’s sprawling Epworth suburb since 2023, as part of an initiative to regularise informal settlements throughout the country, a Cabinet Minister has said.
In the lead-up to the August 2023 general elections, the ruling ZANU PF party committed to regularising over 80,000 illegal settlements where tenants faced the risk of having their homes demolished.
To support this effort, the Cabinet endorsed the Kwangu/Ngakwami Presidential Title Deeds Programme Consortium, which aims to provide the necessary financial and technical assistance for the issuance of these titles.
On Wednesday, during a session in the National Assembly, Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Anxious Masuka, who was acting as the leader of government business in Parliament, addressed parliamentarians regarding the progress made in the regularisation exercise. He stated (via NewsDay):
The regularisation of such stands is important and the issue of human dignity should be addressed. 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.
Masuka said authorities need to understand why settlers were receiving eviction notices despite the government’s commitment to regularising illegal settlements.
According to government reports, the Harare Metropolitan Province contains approximately 52,000 houses constructed in illegal settlements, with 25,000 of these structures located in Chitungwiza as of 2023.
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