Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Mines, Caleb Makwiranzou, has described the completion of the Electronic Cadastre title management system as “the single most important reform for the integrity of our work,” while pledging faster turnaround times and greater fairness in the administration of mining titles, Mining Zimbabwe can report.
By Ryan Chigoche
Speaking to ministry officials in Harare, Makwiranzou said the long-awaited digital system is critical to restoring transparency and certainty in Zimbabwe’s mining sector, where disputes over overlapping claims have historically undermined investor confidence.
The Electronic Cadastre is a digital mineral rights registry designed to replace Zimbabwe’s paper-based mining title system. Once fully operational, it will enable authorities to map, track, and administer all mining rights, from small-scale gold claims to large petroleum and gas concessions, through a single transparent platform.
Makwiranzou was unequivocal about the significance of the reform.
“It is not just an IT project,” he said. “It is the single most important reform for the integrity of our work. A functioning, transparent, and electronic Cadastre means that the ground is taken. It means that no two people can claim the same place for whatever mineral they want to extract.
“To do the Cadastre means that we now can track our titles. Once we put it on the Cadastre map, that title belongs to the person whom we would have named. Let us commit that the Ministry will have a quick turnaround time and fairness in implementing that Cadastre. When the title is registered, no one can dispute that registration.”
The system is intended to eliminate overlapping claims, reduce disputes, and provide investors with certainty that registered mining rights are secure and legally recognised.
However, implementation has been delayed for years by funding constraints, technical integration challenges, and institutional resistance, leaving the sector reliant on a fragmented paper-based system prone to boundary disputes and double allocations.
Momentum behind the project has recently increased following a key technical breakthrough. The Ministry announced that the E-Cadastre will incorporate survey-grade coordinate data, providing centimetre-level accuracy that allows mining titles to be tied to precise geographic locations.
