Suburban
Stand Number 37 in Pomona, which was demarcated for a park but recently saw some building being put up there, is currently under investigation by the police, Local Government and Public Works Minister July Moyo told Parliament recently.
Suburban Reporter
He was responding to a question from Harare North Member of Parliament Mr Allan Markham who asked why the development structures were taking place on the stand, which is a deceased estate, despite the fact that it was initially leased and later sold in 2019 to a company called Lagrange, amid objections and offers to run and lease the park by residents which were ignored.
“The file for the Stand Number 37 Pomona Township is with the Harare Metropolitan Police under investigation.
“Therefore, I was not able to access this file because Harare Metropolitan police is working with the national police on investigations of that nature,” responded Minister Moyo.
Mr Markham also wanted the Minister to confirm whether an audit has been conducted by the City Valuations Office and also whether an asset register has been compiled for the period 2010 to 2021.
The Minister said the audit has not yet been completed while the lease data base needs cleaning up.
“Madam Speaker, Land Bank has not yet been concluded.
“Lease data base needs clean up, lease renewals and reviews are in progress and I want to assure the Honourable Member that given the local authority digital service that we are now saying Harare all your departments have to do, I am sure all these will be excavated.
“We have good evidence from Mutare where this was done and the city is now running very properly including land issues,” said Minister Moyo.
Mr Markham also asked Minister Moyo if the developments on the Stand Number 37 Pomona could not be put on hold since it was under police investigation.
“I would like to ask the Minister if the Stand or Plot that is being investigated which is now a development, which is currently getting sewerage works going on, boreholes being drilled and other services, can that not be put on hold until investigations are completed?” said Mr Markham.
The Minister said once investigations are underway it difficult to take arbitrary decisions because they could be challenged in the courts and he could only ask for the probe to be expedited.
“Well, when we have investigations the manner that we are having, what one would shy away from doing is taking arbitrary decisions. What I can do is speed up that investigation.
“We also have a parallel system that is chaired by the Honourable Vice President on dysfunctional urban settlements and we are also looking at the same things. We hope that one way or the other we will come to a situation where we can resolve Stand Number 37 that the Honourable Member has asked to resolve.
“However, we do not want to take arbitrary decisions because you know we will be taken to court if we do not do it procedurally and we want to follow the law.”
No comment could be obtained from the police on the progress made so far on their investigations into Stand Number 37 Pomona.
