Zimbabwe: Women whose names do not appear on title deeds face hardships

Women in Law Southern Africa – Zimbabwe and the Property and Inheritance Rights Network of Zimbabwe have prepared a position paper for submission to the Law Development Commission to address women’s rights to property. Women whose names do not appear on title deeds face hardships in Zimbabwe.

The legal situation is such that husbands whose names do not appear on the title deeds can sell the immovable property to the detriment of the wife. The Honourable Justice Makarau stated clearly in the case of Muswere vs Makanza and others HC-16-2005 that clearly the law in place “is unsatisfactory and palpably unjust. …The individualistic approach and clear cut principles of property law are notrealistic in a marriage which is the union of two people and in most cases, themerging of their wealth generation capacities for mutual benefit”.

Makarau back then lamented the disjuncture between family law and law of inheritance as practiced in this jurisdiction. The family law “recognises to a large extent the existence of a joint matrimonial estate, brought intobeing by the fact of marriage and whose distribution depends on the partiescontributions both direct and indirect, the law of property does not”.

Thelaw (inheritance) only intervenes at death in terms of the inheritance laws that state that the immovable property goes to the surviving spouse. Upon divorce, the immovable property is shared equitably using the provisions of the Matrimonial Clauses Act.

The property law violates key provisions of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development, which call on States to ensure access to productive resources including property and land for women and men in an equitable manner and harmonisation of related laws.
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Source: WLSA Zimbabwe