HARARE residents are fuming over “illegal and corrupt” parcelling out of State land by Harare City Council, raising serious concerns about alleged irregularities in land distribution within the affluent Borrowdale neighbourhood.
Appearing before the commission of inquiry set up by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to look into the operation of Harare City Council from 2017 to date last week, a Borrowdale Residents and Ratepayers Association representative Robert Mutyasire said local authorities no longer value communities’ input. He also highlighted that they are allowing questionable developments in prime wetland areas.
“We feel the local authority has awarded, distributed and sold land and properties arbitrarily as well as indiscriminately,” Mutyasire said.
He said the high demand for land in the area due to its commercial and residential appeal has led to the arbitrary award of land by city authorities.
“We have seen a number of inordinate infractions in terms of where people are getting space to build, where people are getting space to develop commercial properties.
“One of the very prominent features of our area of residence is the environmental set-up, where there are many rivers, many preserves and a number of water sources that have since been infringed upon by a number of individuals and corporations seeking to establish themselves in the Borrowdale area,” Mutyasire said.
“We have a residential development that has since been pegged on a road.
“This was naturally a waterway and in times of good rains, you would actually have springs of water and continuous flows of water in that particular area, but according to some investigations that we have conducted, that area has since been pegged into stands.”
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He added that they had petitioned council several times, but no action had been taken by the local authority.
“Since January 2018, residents have submitted multiple requests against any development in our wetlands, which have been ignored,” Mutyasire said.
“It is concerning that a city council employee could be operating in dual roles, both as an official overseeing developments and as a private project manager.
“It has since been established that there is a demolition order that has been issued concerning that particular building, but it has not been enforced.”
