By Blessing Jena

HARARE-IN April 2023, President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced his government would deliver 11 000 title deeds to houses built in Epworth, an informal settlement, a few kilos east of the capital city Harare.

Title deeds are legal documents that give proof of allotment of a property by an authority and empowers the holder to own and transfer the property.

The President went so far as to publicly hand out some title deeds to selected Epworth residents, mainly comprising of his ZANU PF party supporters.

Mnangagwa made the gesture just before the polls under the Kwangu/Ngakwami Presidential Title Deeds Programme Consortium, a move used to woo voters ahead of the August 2023 harmonized elections.

As a bait, he only handed out 265 securitized deed of grants to selected Epworth residents at the launch of the programme at Epworth High School in the run-up to the elections and promised to avail more.

Our fact checker Blessing Jena travelled to Epworth to check if more people in the settlement have benefited from the fast track title deed programme, promised by the President.

He found there is no joy in Epworth where very few reported having received title deeds to their houses.

Fruitless search

Following the President’s promise, home owners have been approaching the Epworth local board since last year but failed to obtain the title deeds.

Residents of Chinamano in Epworth noted their stands have already been serviced and were in proper order according to the local government plan. Yet, when they attempted to submit their papers, the Epworth local board simply asked them to return the “next day”.

Stop Over residents noted that when they visited the local board to submit their documents for their stands, they were asked to leave their details and “would be contacted later”.

Despite leaving their papers, they did not receive any follow up calls resulting in a long waiting period of over six months. Several individuals who spoke to ZimTracker indicated they had made multiple attempts to submit their documents but they were unsuccessful.

Epworth Town Clerk Dr Wilson Mhanda said that he didn’t have much information about the issue of the title deeds.

Our Verdict

It is now a year since the elections were held in August 2023 but the president has not made true of his promise.

Government this year made an about turn saying it will not offer title deeds to un-serviced stands.  Mnangagwa misled Epworth voters on the issue of title deeds. This was a political gimmick by Mnangagwa and his ZANU PF party as they were canvasing for votes.