by Staff reporter
Government has moved in to assist people who were affected by recent demolitions in Budiriro by Harare City Council through providing tents, food and non-food items once residents have moved to the proposed site in Highfield Harare.
A report by Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Honourable July Moyo yesterday on the demolitions revealed that the Metropolitan Provincial Civil Protection Committee had activated its structures to assist the affected families. Government through its partners had proposed to relocate the affected families to Zimbabwe grounds in Highfields, where there are water and sanitation facilities as a temporary measure while objectives of the court ruling are yet to be fully applied.
According to the Minister, the reason for relocating the affected people was for the Government not to act against the court order, not withstanding other challenges associated with the relocation exercise.
There has also been an outcry from the public about the timing of the demolitions, citing the rain season and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted the Government to intervene.
According to the report, due to the rampant illegal occupation of open spaces of land by land barons in Harare, the Harare City Council took illegal occupants of such land to court and to date Council has secured twenty three court rulings in their favour and twenty two are yet to be executed. The executed one according to the report is against the controversial Events housing cooperative, a splinter group from Tembwe housing cooperative.
The report further revealed that on the 8th of December 2020, the demolition of illegal structures in Budiriro affected 134 families adding that while it is a fact that Events housing cooperative was in the process of being allocated the said piece of land, Tembwe housing cooperative invaded the land resulting in Harare City Council and the two cooperatives dragging each other to court. The judgement according to the report was made on 29th of January 2020 under case number 4457/19.
The report further highlighted that the city’s land allocation policy clearly states that no housing cooperative is allocated two adjacent pieces of land, hence the split of Events from Tembwe housing cooperative. This according to the report was done to make it possible for Events housing cooperative to acquire the adjacent piece of land although they were former members of Tembwe housing cooperative. The court ruling is reportedly not about the legitimate owner of the land between Tembwe and Events housing cooperatives, but was about legal occupation of the land in question.
Government has recommended that while the demolitions have caused a near humanitarian crisis, the rule of law should always be upheld as most of such illegal settlements are breeding grounds for epidemics and other social vices, adding that the occupations were also being championed by individuals who are seeking to profiteer from ordinary people’s quest for land and housing.
The Minister accused land barons for causing chaos and frustrating orderly development in Harare.
