What was said
With the 24-month validation deadline under SI 76 of 2025 already running, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has moved to calm public concern, telling Parliament that citizens who fail to validate their property documents within the prescribed window will not forfeit their ownership rights. Unvalidated paper deeds, he said, remain legally sound.
Government has set the cost of validation at US$215, a figure now attached to what had otherwise been an open question for property owners weighing how urgently to act.
Why the reassurance was needed
Guidance from legal practitioners advising on the rollout has previously warned that consequences for missing the deadline could range from unmarketable title to collapsed property transactions and contested estates. Set against that framing, the Minister's statement is a notable softening, drawing a clear line between losing legal soundness and losing ownership outright.
Not everyone in government is speaking with one voice
The reassurance lands alongside a separate and less settled thread. Members of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Lands and Rural Development have grilled the Lands Ministry over what they describe as inconsistencies between the new title deed policy and existing law, including confusion over how and when an effective registration date was announced, and what happens to old offer letters under the new system. That scrutiny suggests the policy's practical rollout, distinct from the Justice Minister's legal reassurance, is still being worked out.
What it means for owners
Taken together, the two threads suggest a policy still settling into its final shape: the legal position, per the Justice Minister, is that inaction carries no risk of losing title, while the administrative and procedural detail, per Parliament's own questioning, is still being clarified. Owners weighing whether to validate immediately or wait may reasonably find both facts relevant.