Govt must stop regarding voters as illegal land occupants

Harare Residents Trust has warned the government and the local authorities to stop taking people who vote for Zanu PF and the MDC-T who control Harare City as illegal land occupants.

"Harare Housing delivery remains under the control of party Housing Cooperatives, shared between Zanu PF and the MDC-T," said the trust.

"In the majority of the cases, these housing cooperatives have occupied unserviced land on the outskirts of Harare, and the occupants of these residential stands have ended up being registered to vote, and have actually voted, deciding elections, yet they are considered illegal by the Government of the Day."

The trust asked why should the people who have always voted in the past elections today be regarded as illegals, when the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has put voting centres in those so-called illegal residential areas? Should the outcomes of the elections in which these so-called illegal settlers be set aside because the people used illegal addresses?

"There is so much that has to be dealt with. Besides the political actors behind the confusion, regularisation of these properties required the council to be engaging with the affected residents, educating them on the legal requirements of the council when processing the allocation of housing stands," said the trust.

"But the overall issue that must be dealt with today is on the sincerest of politicians to address housing as a priority of the citizens. Because from HRT investigations it is evident that the City of Harare workers in the planning and housing departments are the ones who are pointing out the vacant land to the housing cooperatives, and telling them they could proceed to occupy and process their papers later, upon payment of huge amounts of money in bribes for that to happen."