Illegal Settlers on Urban Land: Law and the Quest for Urban Development Sanitisation in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Rapid urbanisation has tumbled over the past decades and has led to settlement in the urban sphere being regarded as illegal. The article contributes to the on-going debate on which should override the other, the legalisation of illegal settlements or the quest for urban sanitisation. The article understands sanitisation to mean development, especially that of attaining an upper middle-income economy. Different governments have undertaken different ways of solving urban settlement challenges. They have hinted that such settlements should comply with the law. The study focuses on how the government has responded in times of urban illegal settlement. The purpose of the research is to contribute to the stock of knowledge on how illegal settlements have increased over the past years and the solutions needed to address the issue thereafter. The article draws inferences also from the position of the law regarding illegal settlements.