𝗥𝗜𝗦𝗞 𝗢𝗙 𝗟𝗢𝗦𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗜𝗧𝗟𝗘 𝗗𝗘𝗘𝗗𝗦 𝗝𝗨𝗟𝗬 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳. 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝟭
Unbeknown to most Zimbabweans, in July 2025, the government enacted Statutory Instrument 176 of 2025 or the Deeds Registrations Regulations. These regulations require every Zimbabwean to validate their current title deeds by end of July 2027 in order to obtain the new securitized title deed.
If you have not completed this process by end of July next year, you risk losing title to your property through disputes, government forfeiture, or outright theft by opportunists working within the system.
The process involves five phases:
1. Document Auditing and Retrieval: This process entails verifying all your papers with your lawyer to ensure you have everything. This includes examining your purchase agreement, receipts, transfer fees, tax clearance certificate, capital gains tax, and proof of payments.
2. Rates and Council Clearances:
Next will be verification that you are fully paid up on your municipal rates and taxes in order to obtain a clearance certificate. From there, you will also need clearance from ZESA. If any monies are outstanding, you will need to settle them before receiving your clearance.
3. ZIMRA Clearance:
ZIMRA will assess whether you are fully paid up on your property taxes and capital gains tax. This process will also check whether you paid fair value for your property to determine if adequate capital gains tax and transfer fees were paid.
If your property is deemed to have been undervalued when you purchased, it will be re-evaluated and you will be liable to pay the shortfall in taxes, transfer fees, and penalties before receiving tax clearance.
4Lodgement:
Once you have your municipal, ZESA, and ZIMRA clearances, alongside your title deeds and the other documents verified in the first process, it becomes mandatory to engage a conveyancer to take you through the remaining steps.
Here, you and the lawyer must go together to sign DR forms and submit your ID, biometrics, company registration papers, or trust documents if the property belongs to either of the two.
To avoid becoming a victim of fraud, try not to give lawyers power of attorney to handle such sensitive matters because properties are often lost during these processes.
5. Surrendering Documents:
The final step is submitting all the documents collected above: title deeds; receipts; capital gains records; municipality, ZESA, ZIMRA clearances and DR forms.
If you have lost your title deeds, you will need certified copies and must undertake a notarial process where you place an advert in the newspaper notifying the public for 30 days that the property is yours, allowing anyone wishing to challenge ownership to do so.
This title deed validation process has been promoted as a way to secure title deeds through digitisation. While securing title deeds may indeed be beneficial, it is also undoubtedly a money making opportunity for municipalities, ZESA, ZIMRA, conveyancers, and Kuda Tagwirei’s Dokma, which will digitise the title and offer securitized deed.
Now here is the threat. If this process is handled in bad-faith and profiteering intent, as has happened with mining rights and as they are attempting to do with CAB3, many people are going to lose properties because:
(i) Where there are multiple people claiming title, a vetting process will be required. As seen in mining fraud cases, people within the current Deeds Office can then collude with wealthy individuals to create duplicate title deeds. Property can then be lost during verification or court processes where members of the Deeds Office and judiciary work with cartels to seize properties, as is happening in mining.
(ii) Where title deeds are lost or not verified by July 2027, government could potentially take over such properties and sell them to cartels.
The fact that private entities such as lawyers and cartel owned Dokuma are involved means there is room for the usual fraud and corruption.
This is the nightmare of being ruled by merciless thugs whose continued hold on power depends of keeping the majority poor and fearful of what the thugs will do next!
The biggest mistake we the ordinary people have made is to try to appease them. Appeasement has only serviced to embolden the thugs. Give them a inch and they will be back demanding a foot; give them a foot and they will be back demanding a yard, etc.! It never end!
In 1980 Zanu PF made it clear if the party lost the elections the bush war would continue. The nation voted to end the bush war. As soon as the Zanu PF thugs were settled in their new government offices they launched the Gukurahundi massacre to crush PF Zapu, the only other political party that constituted a serious challenge to Zanu PF rule. Dr Joshua Nkomo and his colleagues finally relented after over 20 000 killed and signed the 1987 unity accord that paved the way for the imposition of the de facto one party dictatorship.
In 2008 SADC leaders pressured Mugabe to implement some electoral reforms to allow the nation to hold the nearest ever to a free, fair and credible March 2008 elections. When it was clear Zanu PF was losing, Mnangagwa and Chiwenga stopped ZEC announcing the results, the start of Operation Mavhotera Papi to punish the people for having dared to reject Zanu PF.
Credit where credit is due, SADC leaders once again stepped in and refused to grant Zanu PF political legitimacy and forced the party to go into the 2008 to 2013 GNU. The primary purpose of the GNU was to implement the democratic reforms to dismantle the de facto one party dictatorship.
Alas! Morgan Tsvangirai and his MDC fiends who were given the task of implementing the reforms sold out. Mugabe bribed them and the forgot about the reforms. Ever since the GNU debacle MDC/CCC leaders have participated in flawed elections to give Zanu PF victory and legitimacy for a few gravy train seats. They have conned their brain dead followers to participate on the basis of idiotic lies of the opposition winning the flawed elections.
Mnangagwa got into State House on the wake of the 2017 military coup and has rigged the 2018 and 2023 elections to secure his position. And now he is rigging CAB3 to extend his stay as President beyond the two five-years maximum set in the constitution.
CAB3 will complete the transformation of Zimbabwe from a de facto one party dictatorship to a de jure one party dictatorship.
Meanwhile Zanu PF is flexing its muscle to spreading fear amongst the masses. Zanu PF has denying rural people title deeds to even one acre of land on which their mud huts stand. Zanu PF considers rural areas its political strong hold for no other reason than that the regime has its tyrannical boot on the neck of the rural people. Zanu PF has keep the rural people poor and dependent on party handouts.
Many Zimbabweans have migrated to the towns and cities in the hope they can buy land and build a decent home for themselves. They have fallen victims of land barons who have used their political connections to get land and then sell it. Many have seen their life-time’s hard work reduced to rubble; the regime has always had an excuse for demolishing the houses. The land barons are never touched.
Now the regime is moving in on those who got their title deeds before independence. The regime has just passed a law in July 2025 forcing all to change their title deed to a digital formate by July 2027. Two years! No doubt the contract to buy the related digital computers and credit-card or whatever to be issued to the holder have been issued to Chivayo or some such supplier!
The present title deed system has worked and none of the holders have ever complained so if it is not broken why fix it? This is just the regime extending its political reach into people’s lives. City and town dwellers who have so far believed they can buy and sell their homes as they wished will, from July 2027, discover Zanu PF has a final say in that. The buyer and/or seller will need proof Government has a record of digital title deeds - we all know how chaotic, hard and costly it is to get even something as simple as birth certificate!
Besides, Zanu PF should focus on issuing title deeds to the millions in the rural areas and end the medieval serfdom system inherited from the colonial days. The rural people need hard copies of their title deed and not digital format.
A tyrannical ruling elite, sell-out opposition and a brain dead electorate have proven to be a deadly cocktail for Zimbabwe; we are a failed state and, worst of all, are stuck.
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