LAND SURVEY ACT (as amended at March 2004) “land surveyor” means a person who is recognized as such for the purposes of this Act and registered or deemed to be registered as a land surveyor under the Land Surveyors Act [Chapter 27:06]; “land survey technician” means a person registered as a land survey technician under the Land Surveyors Act [Chapter 27:06]; “land surveyor-in-training” means a person registered as a land surveyor-in-training under the Land Surveyors Act [Chapter 27:06]; “local authority” includes any body of persons which, being by law established, has the general control, care and management of public places; “local planning authority” has the meaning assigned to it in terms of subsection (1) of section 2 of the Planning Act; “Minister” means the Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office responsible for Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement or any other Minister to whom the President may, from time to time, assign the administration of this Act;2 “official control point” means a permanent mark the position of which has been declared by the Surveyor-General to be an official control point; “owner”, in relation to land, means the person registered in the Deeds Registry as the owner of such land, and includes the liquidator of a company or the representative recognized by law of any owner who has died, become insolvent, assigned his estate, is a minor or of unsound mind or is otherwise under disability, if such liquidator or representative acts within the powers conferred on him by law; and includes the allottee of land held under provisional title and in process of alienation by the State; and also the lessee of land held under a lease for a period of ninety-nine years registered in the Deeds Registry; “Planning Act” means the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act [Chapter 29:12]; “public place” includes any street, road, thoroughfare, sanitary passage, square or open space shown on a general plan of a township, filed in the Deeds Registry or the Surveyor-General’s office, and all land, other than stands shown on the general plan, the control whereof is vested, to the entire exclusion of the owner, in a local authority or to which the owners of the stands in the township have a common right; “reference mark” means a survey mark of permanent construction placed by a land surveyor or under the direction of the Surveyor-General in a township to form one of a system of such marks for the purposes of connecting thereto the survey or re-survey of the pieces of land in such township, or for assistance in replacing the previously placed beacons of such pieces of land; “registration”, in relation to any land, means a registration of any real right in or to such land in accordance with the provisions of the law relating to the registration of deeds; “specified foreign licence” means a licence declared to be a specified foreign licence in terms of the Land Surveyors Act [Chapter 27:06]; “specified foreign qualification” means a degree, diploma or other qualification declared to be a specified foreign qualification in terms of the Land Surveyors Act [Chapter 27:06]; “stand” means every piece of land registered as a stand, lot or plot in the Deeds Registry, and includes a stand or lot 2 forming a portion of a piece of land laid out as but not proclaimed a township, or a portion of such stand or lot; “subdivision permit” means a permit to subdivide any property granted in terms of section 41 of the Planning Act; “subdivision plan” means a plan showing the layout of a proposed subdivision or subdivisions; “township” means a group of pieces of land which are used for residential, industrial, commercial or similar purposes, or are intended or likely to be used for any such purpose, including a township established in terms of the Planning Act and any township established before the 1st November, 1976, in accordance with the law in force at the date of its establishment; “town survey mark” means a survey mark of permanent construction placed under the direction of the SurveyorGeneral or the Director of Trigonometrical and Topographical Surveys appointed under the Trigonometrical and Topographical Survey Act, 1958 (No. 2 of 1958), in a township to form one of a system of such marks, the position of which the Surveyor-General has approved; “trigonometrical station” means a station of the primary, secondary, tertiary or quaternary trigonometrical survey systems as classified by the Surveyor-General. 3 Application of Act This Act shall only apply to any survey used for the purpose of effecting the registration of any land in the Deeds Registry, or for re-determining the position of a curvilinear boundary, or of any beacon defining the terminal of any boundary of a piece of land registered in the Deeds Registry. 4 Act binding on State This Act shall be binding on the State in so far as any land surveyed or re-surveyed or dealt with thereunder is unalienated State land, or land which has been alienated and subsequently re-acquired by the State; and the SurveyorGeneral shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be the owner of any such land. PART II ADMINISTRATION Establishment of Surveyor-General’s office (1) There shall be established at Harare a SurveyorGeneral’s office which shall be deemed to be a continuation of the Surveyor-General’s office in existence on the 30th April, 1933. (2) The Minister may, by notice in a statutory instrument, establish at places, other than Harare, such other additional offices of the Surveyor-General as he may deem necessary or expedient for the proper administration of this Act: Provided that the office of the Surveyor-General which was in existence in Bulawayo on the 12th December, 1969, shall be deemed to have been established in terms of this section, and the Minister shall as soon as possible specify, by notice in a statutory instrument, the area which is served by that office. (3) Where the Minister establishes an additional office in terms of subsection (2), he shall specify in the notice referred to in that subsection the area which shall be served by that office. (4) The Minister may, by notice in a statutory instrument— (a) disestablish any additional office established in terms of subsection (2); (b) amend the area specified in terms of subsection (3) which shall be served by an additional office. 5 Definition adjusted to take account of assignment notified by S.I. 61B/2004. 3