Online Reporter
ILLEGAL sales of space through land barons in the first two decades of this century swept up tens of thousands of people seeking to own a stand so they could build their own home and, in many cases, the Government has been prepared to sort out the mess through regularisation.
This process is largely confined to areas where there was some sort of local plan already and where the purported developers simply sold the plots without first putting in the infrastructure, the roads, sewers and water pipelines.
In these cases, regularisation is possible through the issuance of title deeds that the developers never had to issue, with the new property owners then being able to finance what the vanished developers omitted and putting in the services.
In these cases, regularisation is not the ideal method, but will eventually solve the problem, but with development in a different order from that laid down as the ideal. However, some of the land baron sales cannot be regularised.
There have already been cases where land set aside for schools, clinics and public open spaces was subdivided and sold and those have to revert to the original purposes.
There are also instances where wetlands were parcelled out and those moving in have been flooded out. Sometimes it is impossible to regularise.
One important area now to be cleared of illegal buildings surrounds Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport. There is attractive land around the airport, not too far from the city and other services, that some of the more ruthless land barons moved in to seize and sell.
But this land has always been specially zoned for airport and passenger safety and was never going to be developed. The land barons were not like those who moved onto land that was zoned for housing and already had some layout plans for the road and plot grid.
All airports require more land than just the area set aside for the runways, terminals, hardstands and hangers. They need extra land so that when a plane runs off a runway or overshoots or needs to make an emergency landing that there is space where the plane can come to a halt with minimum danger to passengers aboard and people living nearby.
This is why even in the most crowded cities the airport is surrounded by vacant land. The plane itself might be severely damaged in such an emergency, but so long as it does not slam into buildings or walls there is a very high chance that the passengers can walk away from the wreck, as has happened at other airports.
There are also security concerns, that the vacant land set aside for safety can also function as a barrier and patrol area to keep away those who might wish ill to those travelling by air.
Saboteurs and terrorists are not wanted near airports. International organisations do keep an eye on airport dangers, and if a major airport is considered dangerous this is publicised, and obviously that affects its use and can easily make some airlines and passengers want to give it a pass. Thus damaging tourism and business travel.
It is this land around RGM International that has to be kept clear that was invaded by these ruthless land barons who thought, wrongly, that their standing would grant them some sort of favour. Those building on the land and who have now been ordered to abandon their workings and move, cannot claim that they have been kept in ignorance of the risks they were running. It has been made clear for some years that land in the two zones around RGM International could never be rezoned for housing and that this land was simply not on any list for possible regularisation.
There have been a number of law suits over the zoning and each one has ended in the need to preserve the safety and security zones. The legal housing comes quite close to the airport, but is stopped within the limits laid down and which have been obeyed by the legitimate and legal developers.
In some ways it is difficult to understand why there are still attempts to invade land and create new suburbs organised by land barons.
The regularisation process adopted by the Second Republic made it clear from the beginning that this was an emergency effort to sort out past problems, not to allow new problems to arise and new illegal development.
There are now proper processes and procedures in place for land to be transferred to private developers, and this has resulted in some innovative and imaginative housing schemes around Harare to complement the pure Government schemes.
There is no cheap or free land that someone can just move onto and build; everything has to be planned upfront and services put in first.
The Government has noticed that there are still some dubious and illegal estate agents tied to land barons, or even being land barons themselves, who are still trying to attract new buyers by promising “regularisation” later, but this is now impossible. There are laws governing estate agents and these have to be enforced.
And everyone, wanting to buy land, must realise that every single land transfer is done by a lawyer, with the scale of fees fixed for all law firms, and that if the lawyer acts dishonestly or illegally or even makes a mistake, then there is redress so that the lawyer and if necessary a special fund set up for precisely this reason, bear the cost, not the buyer of a legal stand.
So we need the double, first of all ensuring the safety and security of RGM International while we press ahead with the necessary criminal action against those who think they can brush aside our laws to make personal fortunes.
