Chitungwiza Municipality has run out of land for residential, recreational and industrial development and is targeting surrounding land in Manyame Rural District Council for expansion.
Master plan lead planner, Wycliff Mutambanengwe, made the revelations during master plan engagement meetings with Chitungwiza residents.
Chitungwiza Municipality's weakened physical planning and housing structures have over the years allowed land barons to flourish in the dormitory town.
The local authority has been battling land invasions and illicit boundary changes to existing properties and losing large tracts of land as a result.
“The population boom in the town brought by development led to a shortage of land in Chitungwiza,” said Mutambanengwe.
“For development, we need to consider six farms across Nyatsime as part of our master plan.”
Former ward 3 Zanu PF councillor John Matiyenga said there was need for council to develop outside the Chitungwiza boundary.
“We no longer have land for development here in Chitungwiza and we support the idea of expanding into Manyame Rural District Council.”
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Mutambanengwe said the master plan would be valid until 2034.
Chitungwiza Municipality is racing against time to meet the June 30 deadline for the submission of the master plan.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa ordered all 92 local authorities to come up with master plans by the end of this month in a move meant to curb the sprouting of haphazard settlements.
Meanwhile, speaking during public hearings convened by the commission of inquiry in Harare yesterday, Local Government ministry financial adviser Thompson Marufu said council’s business units were last audited in 2019.
This left HCC business units such as City Parking vulnerable to theft and corruption.
"City Parking was formed around 2013 but the MoU was only crafted in 2022. The financial adviser did not see it,” Marufu said.
“The ministry advised them to utilise their office space but they are still hiring. Twenty percent is supposed to be paid for rent of assets, but without transparency and accountability, it's hard to know how much they bag from the collections.”
It also emerged that council allegedly entered into shady deals with regional parking companies such as Park Rite Africa and Smart Park Africa from South Africa.
The auditors raised concerns over a US$908 000 payment made to Smart Park Africa, as well as the disappearance of US$400 000 paid to Park Rite.
