The Transparency International Zimbabwe in partnership with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission today held a launch ceremony for their research study titled “Urban and Peri-Urban Land Governance in Zimbabwe: Towards a Corrupt Free, Transparent and Accountable System” at the Meikles Hotel in Harare.
The major issues covered in this study included land, demolition of houses, acquiring of stands and mostly corruption.
The study found out that there are multiple land management authorities which makes it difficult to deal with transparency and accountability in the land governance value chain, multiple legislative frameworks, limited supervision of housing cooperatives leading to non-compliance, and also rampant unprocedural and corrupt acquisition of peri-urban land in violation of the standard procedure.
Councils are still lagging behind in the adaptation of the new technological innovations that allow for automation of processes to do with land acquiring but they have since adopted Geographic Information System and the Local Authority Digital System which will help in reducing corruption and eradication of traditional methods of storing data.
The City of Harare Acting Mayor, His Worship, Clr S. Mutizwa who was present at the launch commented on the issue to do with different legislative frameworks and landowners. He said, “There is need of a properly spelled out land bank so that we know which land belongs to who and who does what”.
Local authorities were recommended to invest in automation of the engineering, land management and housing divisions council, update valuation roles, publish waiting lists and comply with the legislation and by-laws, and create a record of all cooperatives and private land developers among others.
For the full proceeding of the launch, you can use the link below