MIDLANDS STATE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF SURVEYING AND GEOMATICS

Land Law

ASSIGNMENT 2

STUDENT NAMES : JASON TULIPOHAMBA B

STUDENT ID : R182433C
LEVEL : 3:1
MODULE CODE : SVG 415
LETURE NAME : MRS T. MUPARARI

DUE DATE: 23 April 2020

TOPIC: COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE CONCEPT OF LAND ACCORDING TO

ZIMBABWEAN LEGISLATION AND ENGLISH LAND LEGISLATION
The concept of land in Zimbabwe is governed by the national, local government, cooperatives as
well as private sectors of which legislation is consulted to establish which party or parties are
entitled to use an area, what are they entitled to do with that area, as well as the obligations they
incur. In more recent years, the Zimbabwean system of law has also been strongly influenced by
the English law but on the other side it is a kind of hybrid of English and Roman-Dutch law and
these are some reasons why they share some characteristics as well as some differences.

According to Tshuma (1997), the Zimbabwean legislation and the English legislation both
shared thereof common law since it first started with the Roman-Dutch law then, later adopted
the English law. Additionally, the land could be left by will by both blacks and whites. In cases
of intestacy, inheritance in the case of whites is handled under the Intestate Estates Act, but in
the case of blacks is governed by the customary law of the deceased.

Mattsson (1997), specifies that, Both use courts of common law and equity which give people
with property rights of various privileges over people who acquired mere personal rights in such
a way that to acquire property over land as opposed to a contract, for example, to use it, a buyer
and seller simply needed to agree that property would be passed, e.g. a deed of sale should be
signed between the two party.

The same as they both do register land when acquired by either a single person or by a group of
people and should be done by following all the procedures of land registration as per the Land
Reform act. Apart from this, the legal system of both parties does not seem to exert much
influence over land and housing policy which means land and housing policy of both systems
operate in the same manner.

In comparison, for land to be acquired by the owner it first has to be surveyed, registered and
through the process of registration the owner has be given a document which describes an
isolated transaction is registered and in this case its referred to a title deed, so all this should be
done by either English legislation or Zimbabwean legislation of land (Cheater, 1978).

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Contrasting views
In contrast, the English is much more statute based than other fields as equity, and the law of
obligations such as contract and moreover, the Law of property act 1925, is the most enduring
element, and it deals with estate, co-ownership of land, contract and conveyances, formalities,
leases, and tenancies in outline, and burdens such as mortgages, easements, and covenants. On
the other hand, the freehold owner of land is capable of granting subordinate leasehold interest to
another individual whereby that person is given an interest is known as a lease or term of years
absolute which denotes exclusive possession of the property for a defined term certain (Cousins,
1990).

Under the English land legislation, all lands belong to the crown as the absolute owner, however,
the citizens who occupy land, does, so for a period granted by the crown, therefore, land is
occupied and are used through the process of estate enjoyed, while under Zimbabwean
legislation, the land belong to the state so now it’s the state responsibilities to share the land into
communal, commercial, state, and private lands.

Contrary to the English rule in deed registration, the fact of registration is virtually conclusive
evidence of good title, and a chain of title need not be traced. The Survey Act required a fixed
(rather than general) boundaries system, and a high degree of accuracy in cadastral survey for
freehold land (Masters, 1990).

However, Under the English law, the Land Acquisition act of 1985 gives right to willing seller
willing buyer hence buyer give government first right to purchase large-scale farms, while under
the Zimbabwean legislation the act gives the president power to acquire land and other
immovable properties compulsorily.

The traditional content of English land law relates to property right that derive from common
law, equity and registration system where ordinarily ownership of land is acquired by a contract
of sale to complete a purchase, and the buyer formally register their interest with Her Majesty
Land Registry (Cotula & Toulmin, 2004). Despite this, under the Zimbabwean legislation, there
are different ways of acquiring land right namely the land must have ownership, it is possible for

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the owner to transfer ownership and vise-versa, transferee has to be able to receive ownership
and this process goes through registration or conveyance whereby the transfer of lands are done
at the deeds' office under the ministry of Land Reform (Murombedzi, 1990).

As stated by Dale & McLaughlin (1999), the English law enforced more into statutory and
common tenure whereby most of the lands is owned privately except that common land is
subject to right of common held by other individuals over the common and to the special
statutory controls that apply under commons' legislation, unlike the Zimbabwean legislation is
more into customary tenure which may include security of tenure whereby land is leased for a
specific period. Furthermore, The Zimbabwean legislation of ownership is in fact, simpler than
that of England, the former utilizing a simple concept of allodial ownership, uncomplicated by
the feudal influences which encumber English land law (Murombedzi, 1990).

English land law involves the acquisition, content, and priority of rights and obligations among
people with interests in land, despite having a property right in land as opposed to a contractual
or some other personal right matters because it creates privileges over other people’s claims
particularly if the land is sold on (Simpson, 1976). Moreover, the traditional content of English
land law relates to property right that derive from common, equity, and the registration
system whereby ordinarily ownership of land is acquired by a contract.

Under the English law, all titles granted from crown land was registered at the time of grant, and
the law requires the registration of all subsequent transactions, subdivisions, and inheritances.
Moreover, all freehold land is thus registered, as are leases for ten years or more or for the life of
one of the parties and mortgage deeds. While the Zimbabwean act for Land Acquisition provides
government with new controls over freehold and suggests that a further adjustment would
involve conversion of the freehold title over land into long-term leasehold title from the state for
a period of 99 years, with the landholders or their heirs given the first option for renewal of the
leasehold contract (Cousins, 1990).

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Lastly legislation governed by the English, and the Zimbabwean law shares common
characteristics since they all are based on the European legislation of which the Zimbabwean
legislation was adopted from the Roman-Dutch law which was the first law of land legislation to
arrive in Southern Africa and later on influenced by the English law, so in context, the
Zimbabwean legislation is referred to as the Roman-Dutch law since it’s still the one currently
being used by the Zimbabweans. As a result, African Customary Law, as modified by
subsequent legislation thus in the hierarchy of various law systems applicable in Zimbabwe
legislation is, after the Constitution, the most important form of law in Zimbabwe.

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REFERENCING LIST

Cheater, A. P., (1978) Small-scale Freehold as a Model for Commercial Agriculture in Rhodesia:
Zimbabwe, Zambezia (5), 117-127.

Cotula, C. and Toulmin, C. (2004) Land tenure and administration in Africa: Lessons of
experience and emerging issues, International Institute for Environment and Development,
London, p.2.

Cousins, B. (1990) Property and Power in Zimbabwe's Communal Lands; Implications for
Agrarian Reform in the (1990) Paper prepared for Conference on Land Policy in Zimbabwe after
Lancaster at Harare International Conference Center, 13-15 February 1990.

Dale, P. and McLaughlin, J. (1999) Land administration. Oxford University Press. de Soto, H.,
(2000). The Mystery of Capital, Why Capitalism triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere.
Black Swan.

Mattsson, H. (1997) The Need for Dynamism in Land, In: Land Law in Action, A collection of
contributions by participants in the seminar on the theme Land Reform including Land
Legislation and Land Registration in Stockholm on 16-17 June 1996, Stockholm 1997, p. 9-17.

Masters, W. (1990) Unpublished data, Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rural Development,
Government of Zimbabwe, Harare.

Murombedzi, J.C., (1990) Communal Land Tenure and Common Property Resource
Management. An Evolution of the Prospects for Sustainable Common Property Resource
Management in Zimbabwe's Communal Areas. Paper prepared for Conference on Land Policy
in Zimbabwe after Lancaster, held at Harare International Conference Center, 13-15 February
1990.

Simpson, S. R., (1976) Land Law and Registration (book 1), London: Surveyors Publications.

Tshuma, L. (1997) Matter of Injustice, Law, State and the Agrarian Question in Zimbabwe:
SAPES Books, Harare.

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