{"id":103252,"date":"2025-01-20T11:18:05","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T09:18:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere"},"modified":"2025-01-30T00:00:19","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T22:00:19","slug":"government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere","title":{"rendered":"Government Cannot Issue Title Deeds For Farms Without Constitutional Amendment – Mahere"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>Constitutional law expert Fadzayi Mahere has said the government cannot issue title deeds for farms that were seized and redistributed during the land reform programme without first amending the constitution, as doing so would be unlawful.<\/p>\n

This follows the government\u2019s recent appointment of the Land Tenure Implementation Committee, chaired by Kudakwashe Tagwirei, to convert existing land ownership documents (such as 99-year leases) into bankable, registrable, and transferable titles.<\/p>\n

The goal is to enable farmers to use their land as collateral to secure loans from financial institutions.<\/p>\n

However, Mahere argued that, at present, no law empowers the state to issue title deeds for agricultural land. She expressed her views on social media:<\/p>\n

At law, there are only 3 methods by which one can hold, use or occupy state land. These are by way of an offer letter, a permit or a lease.
\nThere is no law that empowers the state to give out title deeds for agricultural land. The Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act says this expressly.<\/p>\n

Ownership in state land vests in the State by operation of law in terms of section 72(4) of the Constitution.<\/p>\n

All the previously held title deeds for this land were endorsed accordingly. Check the Deeds Office.<\/p>\n

How would you purport to undo all that and start issuing new title deeds? There\u2019s no legal mechanism by which such conveyancing can validly take place.<\/p>\n

In short, it would be unconstitutional to alienate the land in the manner suggested. You would have to repeal section 72 of the Constitution in its entirety and effectively reverse everything you were trying to do during the Land Reform Program.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d have to amend the Constitution to create this imagined security of tenure. Stop lying to yourselves and the public.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Constitutional law expert Fadzayi Mahere has said the government cannot issue title deeds for farms that were seized and redistributed during the land reform programme without first amending the constitution, as doing so would be unlawful. This follows the government\u2019s recent appointment of the Land Tenure Implementation Committee, chaired by Kudakwashe Tagwirei, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":103250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[2308,6284,17662,17663,8154,19],"class_list":["post-103252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-fadzayi-mahere","tag-kudakwashe-tagwirei","tag-land-tenure","tag-land-tenure-implementation-committee","tag-title-deeds","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"\nGovernment Cannot Issue Title Deeds For Farms Without Constitutional Amendment - Mahere - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Constitutional law expert Fadzayi Mahere has said the government cannot issue title deeds for farms that were seized and ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government Cannot Issue Title Deeds For Farms Without Constitutional Amendment - Mahere\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Constitutional law expert Fadzayi Mahere has said the government cannot issue title deeds for farms that were seized and ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-20T09:18:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-29T22:00:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/01\/sm_1737359532.283442.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1401\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1050\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Government Cannot Issue Title Deeds For Farms Without Constitutional Amendment – Mahere\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-20T09:18:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-29T22:00:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere\"},\"wordCount\":313,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2025\/01\/sm_1737359532.283442.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Fadzayi Mahere\",\"Kudakwashe Tagwirei\",\"Land Tenure\",\"Land Tenure Implementation Committee\",\"Title Deeds\",\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-cannot-issue-title-deeds-for-farms-without-constitutional-amendment-mahere\",\"name\":\"Government Cannot Issue Title Deeds For Farms Without Constitutional Amendment - 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