Harare City Council accused of carrying out demolitions without a court order

Harare City Council has been accused of continuing to carry out houses demolitions without a court order a development which has been described by the residents as violation of their rights to shelter.

Harare Residents Trust questions the legality of the demolitions and exposed that all this was being done without a court order authorising the demolitions.

"Is the Mayor of Harare and his council in support of the illegal housing demolitions taking place across Harare? The City of Harare does not have court orders authorising them to demolish the houses that were allegedly built without following laid down by- laws," said the trust.

The trust said housing demolitions by the Government of Zimbabwe through its local agency, the City of Harare are evil and unconstitutional.

"There is no sane Government anywhere in the world where the Government allows such disregard of human rights. The Zimbabwe Government has lost its status as the guardian of the people's interests. The residents are evidently on their own without protection of the law. The City of Harare does not have a High Court Order authorising them to demolish those houses they are demolishing. Whoever is behind these demolitions does not deserve to serve in the Government of the People," said the trust.

The trust issued a statement concerning the demolitions and it reads,

THE Harare Residents Trust (HRT) is unhappy with the fire fighting responses by the Harare City Council Urban Planning Department and the law enforcement on illegal land developments. The organisation is alarmed that six suburbs with fully constructed houses are facing demolitions because they used plans not approved by the council to build their houses (Herald, 19 January 2016). These suburbs include Mt Pleasant Heights, an extension of Gletwyn, Pomona, Southern Prospect/ Mainway Subdivision, Belvedere West and South Ashdown Park along Harare Drive. Now the City of Harare is demanding that residents affected have to regularize their plans.

The uncertainty among residents on housing delivery has left the HRT wondering what role the officials in municipal housing departments play in the processing of land applications, approval and monitoring of land developments. The HRT has received questions from residents who want to know where the Harare City Council was when all these houses were being built. Residents want to understand why these officials only show up after these illegal developments have taken place only to destroy the houses. It is evident from the above narration that the City Council officials are sleeping on duty as they have allowed illegality to take root in the suburbs.

Investigations by the HRT to establish what really transpired have revealed that the City of Harare gave the private developers subdivision permits on condition that they will provide infrastructure like sewerage, water, roads networks, before they are given certificates of compliance. After being given the subdivision certificates, the private developers allegedly delayed putting up the required infrastructure, and instead of following the laid down procedures, they starting selling residential stands to individuals who proceeded to construct their houses, despite the private developers not securing the required documentation to allow people to build houses on the land portions in questions.

It has now emerged that one of the private developers has relocated to Kenya, yet has abandoned an infrastructure development project. Residents acknowledge that land was correctly subdivided, connected to the city water, system and in some cases to the sewer system. It is evident that the private developers in these new suburbs, or extensions of existing suburbs, neglected to go through the required processes in terms of municipal by-laws, creating the current legal nightmare for most of the residents.

The City of Harare is demanding that residents in the affected suburbs should submit their building plans, accompanied by their site plans for approval, which is essentially regularization of their stay. Those residents whose houses have been completed are expected to pay US$1 500 to the council before their building plans are approved. The City of Harare has proposed that residents should unite and work together in the development of the infrastructure and only after the residents have completed the required infrastructures will the City of Harare give them a certificate of compliance and a clearance certificate which will allow them to have title deeds. Residents must engage a lawyer who represents the whole group, who will work with the Registrar of Deeds.

All these issues create more headaches for residents. The issues that must be immediately addressed are on how the council allowed the houses to be built, and not demanding that residents merely pay in order to have their properties regularized. If the City of Harare is keen to fundraise, they have to be open about it and stop pretending that they have departments that have a duty and responsibility to monitor housing developments across Harare suburbs.

It can be safely concluded that the City of Harare's officials dealing with the respective private developers are being vindictive following widespread fall-outs over bribe monies, and they are trying to show the private developers that they wield more power over them, and if they refuse their financial demands, they will have to pay the price. It is in this vein that the HRT seeks the Central Government's intervention to correct the obtaining situation in Harare where fundraising activities are being intensified at the expense of following laid down municipal by-laws as provided in the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act (Chapter 29.12) and the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29.15) as well as various legal instruments at the disposal of the council.