The government has reaffirmed its commitment to regularising informal settlements nationwide by providing settlers with land titles and access to essential services.
Shingirayi Mushamba, Chief Director of Spatial Planning and Development in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works said that while some informal structures will be removed to facilitate the provision of essential services, the majority will remain intact.
Mushamba made these remarks during the recent annual general meeting of the Urban Development Corporation (UDCORP) in Harare. He said (via NewsDay):
Regularisation including the issuance of proper title. The processes of regularisation require that there be an approved layout plan, approved by a respective local authority working in partnership with government entities.
Once a layout plan is in place, it provides for roads, for future servicing of the land. So what we will be doing essentially in those settlements, we will be looking at the structures that are on the ground, insofar as they fit in a pre-approved layout plan.
Some structures may be held on land which was reserved for certain particular uses. Efforts will be made to relocate those few structures that will be in such spaces. The majority will be regularised in situ.
Regularisation is then going to culminate in a partnership working with an entity called FANGU, which will then bring in services.
That is part of the process that will lead to the issuance of a title so conditions of urban settlement still be maintained.
Thousands of people across the country reside in informal settlements, primarily located on peri-urban land, where they frequently pay for services that are never delivered.
Many of these desperate home seekers purchase land from politically connected land barons who often operate with impunity, seemingly beyond the reach of the law.
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