SOMETIMES it is very good for people to learn the hard way and recent statements by the National Housing and Social Amenities minister Daniel Garwe speak to this.
Last week he succinctly knocked common sense into some of us who have for a long time thought that everything can be manna from heaven to the point of even daydreaming that they can get title deeds overnight for land they never paid a cent for.
Some time back, some very naive ruling party supporters illegally settled on State land around urban areas, especially Harare, ululated and pranced like they were performing jumping jacks when they were promised title deeds.
And it is, indeed, about time government reminded them that the promise was too good to be true: A load of blue lies, in fact.
While Garwe tried to sugarcoat the issue saying: “People are misunderstanding the issuance of title deeds as an event. It’s not an event, it’s a process,” he, however, did admit that government’s free title deed offer was just a wild red herring.
“The land (in informal settlements like Epworth and Caledonia (East View) in Goromonzi) was invaded illegally by land barons. It was not transferred from the Lands ministry to the Local Government ministry ... You can’t just come and give a person a paper without the description of the property. So, the process gives rise to the creation of the proper description which appears on the title deed. The regularisation process is part of the title deeds issuance process,” is a statement from Garwe that any sane homeseeker needs to seriously ponder over.
We will bet our very last penny that by the time this process is over, those hoping to get free title deeds will get the shock of their lives when they are told to pay jaw-dropping amounts to access the pieces of paper.
The fee will obviously include the value of the land. So the title deeds hopefuls should prepare to pay twice for “their”properties after being fleeced earlier by the land barons.
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It is the height of absurdity to imagine that government will be so benevolent to those thousands of people who were duped by land barons by issuing them with free title deeds when its coffers are presently as dry as a bone.
It would be foolhardy, in fact, if government decides to do so for political expediency.
All we are saying is that all those dreaming of getting free title deeds must quickly wake up from their very deep slumber and smell the coffee: Nothing comes for free in this world, especially in a troubled economy such as ours.
