Zimbabwe is modernising its land administration system through a comprehensive digitisation programme of the Department of Deeds, Companies and Intellectual Property.
This initiative, being done through the creation of a Digital Land Administration Platform (DLAP), seeks to improve security of tenure, enhance efficiency in property transactions, and strengthen confidence in the country’s property registry system.
The world over, a Title Deed is more than just a document, It represents ownership, security and the legacy that we pass on to our children.
However, In Zimbabwe due to the nature of the Deeds Registry in use, challenges such as lost deeds, fraudulent tampering, and damage have made it difficult for some owners to fully exercise their property rights over the years.
To address these challenges, the Deeds Office is currently digitising all title deeds.
“The government saw it fit that we move away from paper based records to digital records. That is the best way of archiving important records,” the Chief Registrar of the Department of Deeds, Mr Willie Mushayi said in a recent interview on the Zim@Large Podcast.
Mr Mushayi said one of the flagship projects of this digitisation project is the Title Deed Validation and Securitisation programme which is supported by Statutory Instrument (SI) 76 of 2025.
He explained that the process was being done in phases, and started with the scanning of all title deeds records held at the Deeds Office.
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“Phase one was digitisation of the archive and we are now on phase two which is digitisation of the processes. In this phase we are now inviting citizens to say the paper you are holding, we want it reduced to digital format and to do that we need your cooperation and we need your support,” he said.
“If you have a title deed, you go to a conveyancer of your choice. What the conveyancer does is to validate: are you who you say you are? Are you the owner of the property? Do you have the credentials to be doing what you intend to do? So they do their checks there, once they are satisfied that they are dealing with a bonafide title holder they upload your information onto the system, the Digital Land Administration Platform, which then lands in our inbox where we see what they have sent and we compare it with what we already have at the Deeds Office.
“Once the information corroborates and we are sure we are dealing with an authentic application we then process it and a new title deed is printed on security paper which has its own embedded security features. So once it's printed, the conveyancer comes to collect the new deed and surrender the old deed which we then endorse and archive accordingly.”
Mr Mushayi re-assured Zimbabweans that the process is meant to protect property rights and not strip anyone of their legitimate title.
“It (the process) is not a transfer, it is just a validation,” he said.
Across the world, governments are increasingly digitising and modernising land and property records to improve efficiency, strengthen ownership protection and reduce fraud.
This digitisation programme is not just about technology, It is about building a modern system that protects property ownership, strengthens trust, and supports economic development in line with Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 Agenda.
