Suburban
Residents say they are disappointed with the Harare City Council (HCC)’s decision to sell off yet another open space near Avondale Clinic at Blue Lagoon shops to a private investor.
Peter Tanyanyiwa Suburban Reporter
Blue Lagoon shops is in Avondale West, which is part of Ward 7 where Avondale Clinic is located and also serves many residents from Ward 16 and Ward 41.
In interviews with Suburban this week, the residents expressed their disappointment saying they thought such an open space will in future be used to expand the clinic or at least open a maternity ward or upgrade the current facility to a polyclinic as the clinic services many wards.
“This is quite a sad development and very disheartening to us the residents. The clinic doesn’t only serve Ward 7 residents but is conveniently situated to assist parts of Ward 41 and Ward 16 as well,” said one of the residents.
The Zimbabwe Combined Residents and Ratepayers Association (ZICORRA)’s provincial chairperson for Harare Mr Lawrence Kuleya expressed disappointment over the development saying the open space should have been used either to expand the clinic or build a council district office.
“As ZICORRA we are really disappointed with what is taking place at the clinic at Blue Lagoon shops.
“Due to the shortage of public medical facilities, it was wiser if the clinic had been expanded to create a polyclinic or maternity ward, instead of selling this open space to private developers,” he said.
“Council could have also used the land for another council district office or council workshop. It would have been understandable since the closest council district office is at Bond shopping centre in Mt Pleasant, which is quite far for some Ward 7 residents,” said Mr Kuleya.
He said that proper consultations should have been done between council, residents and the relevant stakeholders before such decisions were made since residents are directly affected by the decisions.
In Ward 7, there is another open space in Monavale that is reportedly being earmarked for a service station and residents are not happy with such developments.
All these land allocations are taking place at a time the city authorities recently announced that home seekers in Harare will have to wait a bit longer to get stands from council after the local authority temporarily froze new stand allocations.
The City of Harare also suspended operations of the allocation unit in its housing department until internal investigations into unprocedural, double and corrupt allocations are complete.
“As ZICORRA we are really disappointed with what is taking place at the clinic at Blue Lagoon shops.”
