President Emmerson Mnangagwa has dangled title deeds to an estimated 80 000 home-seekers in the capital whose informal settlements and structures face demolition.
The move which comes a few weeks before the March 26 by-elections has been viewed as the ruling party’s strategy to influence the electorate.
Mnangagwa is scheduled to hand the title deeds on Saturday when he is scheduled to address what ZANU PF officials dubbed “mother of all rallies” in Epworth.
Dwellers have been at loggerheads with the local board over plans to demolish their structures.
In the past two years, dozens of structures and informal settlements were destroyed, leaving homeowners and informal traders counting heavy losses.
ZANU PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa said handing out title deeds would be a game-changer and likened the move to the attainment of independence in 1980. He told journalists at a Press conference at the party headquarters:
I am confidently told that by now probably 80 000 houses have been mapped and given addresses. The President will be there to give each one an address, an identity.
The signature act of the Epworth visit would be to grant title deeds to the existing stock of urban houses which the people have and have never used and are dead capital.
We have decided as a party that we shall be giving title deeds to urban people. This is something which is big; it is as big as the land reform. It is as big as independence. It is a signal to urban people that since you are living in an urban setting you need to have a history of credit.
He added that urban people who have no title deeds find it difficult to acquire loans from banks.
Mutsvangwa, however, admitted that the party failed to implement its ambitious plan in the 2018 election manifesto to construct 1.5 million housing units.
More: NewsDay Zimbabwe
LET ALL THE PEOPLE PRAISE PRESIDENT ED MNANGAGWA FOR PLANNING TO GIVE 80 000 RESIDENTS TITLE DEEDS. TITLE DEEDS ARE USEFUL IN MANY WAYS.
BUT IT IS MISPLACEMENT IF THESE TITLE DEEDS ARE USED AS CAMPAIGN GIMMICK. I HAVE TRAVELLED ACRROSS THIS COUNTRY AND WHAT CITIZENS SEEM TO BE SAYING IS THAT THEY NOW WANT CHANGE, REAL CHANGE NOT COSMETIC CHANGE. YES, AS I HAVE ALLUDED TO EARLIER ON THAT TITLE DEEDS ARE ESSENTIAL, BUT TITLE DEEDS DO NOT IMMEDIATELY PLACE FOOD ON THE TABLE.
CITIZENS WANT INITIATIVES WHICH PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE. TITLE DEEDS DO NOT PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE.
ZANU PF HAS STAYED IN POWER FOR TOO LONG. PEOPLE HAVE COMMITTED THEMSELVES TO NEW CHANGE. CITIZENS ARE FED UP WITH ZANU PF.
CHANGE OF POLITICAL LEADERSHIP IS GOOD. NEW PEOPLE WILL BRING NEW IDEAS. I ENJOYED THAT CHANGE WHICH OCCURRED IN 2017 BEFORE ZANU PF RETREATED BACKWARDS TO THEIR OLD SYSTEMS OF CORRUPTION AND PRACTISING BUSH LAW.
I DO NOT LIE WHEN I SAY CITIZENS ARE ANGRY WITH ZANU PF. THEY WILL BE SHELL SHOCKED BY THE BY-ELECTIONS RESULTS ON 26 MARCH 2022.
YOURS SINCERELY
CDE KUFA KWANGU ZVAROVA
[ THE BUSH LAWYER ]