Council blocks land barons from evicting legal residents

Diana Nherera Suburban Reporter

The City of Harare recently assisted residents with houses in Westlea and around the N Richards complex from being evicted by land barons who had secured a court order to have their housed demolished, a council official has revealed.

Ward 16 Councillor Denford Ngadziore made the revelation recently when he presented his State of the Ward Address.

In his address, he touched on the pressing issues bedevilling the ward citing land barons and illegal activities as priority issues requiring urgent attention.

Presenting his State of the Ward at Mabelreign Park, Cllr Ngadziore highlighted some of the land invasion cases involving land barons saying despite the problems caused by land barons and other challenges, the ward scored some notable successes.

He said in Westlea and around the N. Richards area the council had managed to stop the demolition of houses built legally after some land barons approached the courts and secured demolition orders to evict legally settled residents.

“Residents built double-storey houses along Bulawayo Road. The land barons went to court and wanted to evict them and cited Councillor Bote and got a default judgment and a court order ordering council to demolish the houses and evict the residents.

“I was alerted, I’ve engaged residents and through the council lawyers, we’ve managed to stop the illegal demolitions gotten through corrupt means,” said Cllr Ngadziore.

He said the problem of flooding in Sanganayi Inn and Tynwald has since been resolved.

“When it rained 2022 to 2023, we had serious floods at Sanganayi Inn and in Tynwald. The water was coming from Madokero and getting into people’s houses and flats causing flooding and making the houses inaccessible.

Cllr Ngadziore said a drain was opened for rainwater to flow and prevent flooding in the area.  No flooding reports were received from Sanganayi Inn and Tynwald residents when it rained recently.

Cllr Ngadziore said there were still drainage problems needing attention in Matidoda and Lenana Park.

“There was a developer who ran away after allocating residents stands without constructing a road. As we speak, for 22 years, residents of Lenana park don’t have title deeds, some residents have died.

“So we had a meeting where Lenana residents were advised that they would be given partial compliance by council and will be available anytime on condition that the house plans that they used to build without an approved layout plan should be submitted to the Mabelreign district officer.

“Drawings of roads and sewer lines are already there at council. Residents of Lenana Park should submit their plans at the district office then council will give you partial compliance.”

Cllr Ngadziore said full compliance will be issued the matter of the roads have been resolved.

“After that, council will contact you for development of roads so that you get full compliance. And when there is full compliance, you can also approach the Deed’s Office so that you can get title deeds.”

Almost 300 households are affected.

“I have committed myself to holding meetings once a week as a follow-up to this issue. “We hope there will be co-operation from residents so residents get partial compliance this year and full compliance in the first quarter of 2025,” said Cllr Ngadziore.

He said the Mabelreign Local Area Plan has been gazetted and shows the land use for the area. The area plan was gazetted last year.

“Each and every open space will have its land use that will be known. We did this with land barons in mind so that they don’t construct houses everywhere. The Mabelreign Local Area Plan was initiated in 1993. Previous councillors for this area held meetings on it and the topical issue was the masterplan. And when I was elected in 2018, I pushed to a certain level and I’m glad that it has now been gazetted although with some challenges.”

He said the area plan spells out the purpose for each place and that cannot be changed.

“To me, this is an achievement but also there are challenges because it lacked consultation in other areas especially in Haig Park and Cotswold Hills because when the Mabelreign Local Area Plan was gazetted, they turned almost all greenways into residential stands. Not even a single greenway was left for recreational use so we are going to address that in future.”

Cllr Ngadziore said the difficulty in challenging land barons was that most of them had backing from some authorities.

“Most of the land invasions are done by people who have backing somewhere. After they damaged my vehicle, some of them had me arrested. I was detained at Mabelreign Police Station. I spent seven months on remand using my own money and lawyers and I was acquitted,” he said.

Cllr Ngadziore said he was chronicling these issues to highlight the problem of land invasions in Ward 16.

“We have several complaints in Mabelreign of land invasions. If you go to Zuva garage (along Sherwood Drive), there is a big house. That house then, I’m not sure now, did not have compliance. But someone from the top thought he could build using his own powers and closed a road that was there that used to go to Wessex and built a main house,” he said.

Cllr Ngadziore said the issues would help the community understand the challenges obtaining in their neighbourhood.