Rapid Urbanisation and Urban Governance Responses in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe

Rapid urbanisation coupled with poor urban governance in most African cities has resulted in uncontrolled urban sprawl, discordant spatial developments, and informal land governance systems. In Chitungwiza, urban land governance had been hijacked by politically backed housing cooperatives and land barons who became the planning authority. This chapter explores the different strategies that can help Chitungwiza Municipality improve its urban land governance system and make the process generally beneficial to the residents. The study used both primary and secondary data sources. The data was analysed using trend analysis, simple descriptive statistics, and thematic analysis. It found that an informal land delivery system in Chitungwiza led to illegal developments, some located in sensitive areas such as wetlands and within the flood plains of the city’s water courses. Therefore, the study recommends policy interventions that aim to eliminate informal/corrupt land governance practices in Chitungwiza. Such policies include creating and maintaining an electronic land database, which is updated regularly to show changes in land ownership patterns in the city. This should be preceded by comprehensive mapping of the city’s land area showing different land uses and land ownership patterns.