Harare council under fire for demolitions

Trust Freddy

Herald Correspondent

GOVERNMENT has slammed the Harare City Council for demolishing houses built in Ridgeview Belvedere suburb, saying the move was shocking, callous and inhumane.

Over the past two weeks, council has been demolishing houses in this area, claiming they were built irregularly and without authorisation.

Government has since launched an investigation into the matter after establishing that council had embarked on the demolition exercise without a court order.

In a statement yesterday, Harare City Council confirmed the demolition of 30 houses that were under construction, on 52 demarcated stands laid out for residential use.

Council said it had demolished the structures because the development was not authorised.

“The land in question is Ridgeview Belvedere described as remainder of Salisbury Township Lands plan number TP2F/2219/3, which was approved in 2002,” reads the statement.

“This land is legally owned by the City of Harare and is designated for residential purposes. This piece of council land has 52 unserviced residential stands. The valuation of the stands was done and approved by council in 2021.”

Council claimed that before it could allocate the stands, the land was invaded by individuals led by a company called Brickstone Builders and Contractors (Private) Limited.

“At that material time, they erected wooden cabins on 15 stands. The stands do not have the requisite water, sewer, roads and storm water drains which are required before one can settle on land,” said the council in the statement.

However, the demolitions have been widely condemned, with the issue spilling into Parliament where Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, said Government was shocked by the brutal demolition of people’s houses.

Responding to legislators who demanded to know the rationale behind the demolitions, Minister Ziyambi on Tuesday said Government was not involved, adding that no court order was obtained by council to demolish the houses.

“In fact, in this particular case, it is the Municipality of Harare that demolished without a court order. Everything that the Honourable Member has said falls squarely onto the hands of the city authorities,” he said.

“They are the ones that have been allowing the buildings to be built; they are the ones that have demolished. You can go and check. They demolished without even a court order and we have also requested that this be investigated.”

Minister Ziyambi concurred with other legislators that authorities should prevent illegal structures from being completed, rather than allowing them to be fully built only to be demolished later.

“Why wait until a house has been built and then you send bulldozers to destroy it? Some of the houses were beautiful structures and it is not even fair to those people. So, I believe it is a point of national interest but it is a point that our local authorities, largely controlled by the opposition, must also have a human face and be able to articulate some of these issues from a human rights perspective,” he said.

In an interview yesterday, Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe condemned the council for demolishing houses without consulting the parent ministry.

He said on Monday, the ministry directed the mayor and town clerk to stop the demolitions.

“We distance ourselves from, and central Government distances itself from such behaviour. We have nothing to do with that,” said Minister Garwe.

However, he said while citizens had the right to housing, they could not abuse that right by establishing illegal settlements.

“The New Dispensation values all citizens and respects the Constitution, which says housing is a fundamental right,” he said. “People have a right to housing, but that said, we must not take the law into our own hands and say, I can build a house wherever I want.

“The law will still visit you. We do not want to take advantage of certain developments and people must not start building recklessly.”

Mr Everson Sika, a concerned citizen, strongly criticised Harare City Council for inflicting pain on innocent residents.

“This is hypocrisy at its highest level,” he said. “What is the point of illegally regularising wetlands while demolishing houses in areas designated for residential use.”

Another citizen, Ms Lilian Chaka, said: “It defies logic to remove people who were scammed with fake documents.

“The council should have acted immediately to prevent this. They’re not showing any pity to those who were deceived into believing these stands were genuine.”