Bulawayo City Council is exploring the use of satellite technology to detect illegal construction and unapproved developments at an early stage, as the country’s second-largest city moves to guard against the emergence of land barons.
The move comes amid growing concerns over illegal settlements and land sales across the country.
Land barons—often informal syndicates or politically connected individuals—parcel out land without council approval, sometimes on sites reserved for agriculture, infrastructure or public use, and sell stands to desperate home-seekers.
The practice has fuelled unplanned settlements, corruption and service-delivery crises in several cities.
In Harare, authorities recently demolished houses built on land deemed illegally occupied or developed, displacing families and sparking widespread criticism.
Bulawayo mayor David Coltart said the city had not experienced illegal development on the scale seen in Harare, but acknowledged that land barons remained a potential threat.
“We have the potential danger of land barons. There’s no doubt about that,” Coltart said.
He noted that Bulawayo’s historically planned development had given land barons fewer opportunities compared with Harare, where haphazard development can be seen through satellite imagery.
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“You will have seen that we have not had the same as Harare. We have not had bulldozers out, knocking down houses,” he said.
“So I am not saying it’s not happening, but it certainly, we don’t have the illegality on the same scale as Harare.”
Coltart said the council had recently hosted a team from the University of Toronto working on the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LOGRI), a programme that uses satellite technology and digital tools to assist local authorities in monitoring developments and strengthening revenue systems.
He said the technology could allow the council to identify buildings under construction and establish whether they conform to approved town-planning schemes.
“With absolute accuracy, using satellites, it can establish what houses are being built,” Coltart said.
“If you do that, you do two things.
“Firstly, you can confirm that buildings which have been constructed are being built in conformity with the town planning approvals.
“And secondly, you can instantly see where buildings will be constructed where there’s no approval, or if they’re being constructed on land, which is not allocated for that purpose.”
However, Coltart said the council first needed to digitise its town-planning records so that satellite images could be matched against approved plans.
“It’s one thing having a satellite, but you have then got to marry your digital images with your approvals,” he said.
Under the proposed system, the council would be able to identify the size and location of a new structure through satellite imagery and compare it with its digital planning approval records.
Coltart said the technology could also allow the city to identify illegal construction before houses were completed, potentially preventing a repeat of situations where authorities are forced to demolish finished structures.
“Before they get to full structures, you can see from the moment the foundations are laid,” he said.
Coltart said the proposed technology could also improve the way the council calculates property rates by allowing it to assess the actual size of developments on properties rather than relying mainly on land size.
He explained that the current system could result in properties with significantly different improvements paying relatively similar rates because charges were based on factors including plot size.
“With satellite technology, you then zoom in, you see the square meterage of that, and your rates are then charged on the basis of your improvements,” he said.
“So you have a more equitable and accurate system of rates calculation.”
Coltart said the satellite monitoring system was not yet operational in Bulawayo, but argued that adopting modern technology would give the city an additional mechanism to detect unlawful developments before they became entrenched.
