Suburban
SUSPENDED Standard Chartered Zimbabwe and Southern Africa chief financial officer Mr Chris Mwerenga is locked in a dispute with his neighbours in Borrowdale who are accusing him of running an illegal poultry project at his Borrowdale house.
Mr Mwerenga’s neighbours have since reported the matter to the police and the City of Harare. But the top banker insists that he has not violated any of the city’s by-laws.
“We are not doing any illegal poultry business, the structures comply with SI (Statutory Instrument) 120 of 2019.
‘‘The matter is currently in the courts and, therefore we cannot comment any further, thank you,” Mr Mwerenga told our sister paper H-Metro this week.
The banker’s neighbours, who spoke to H-Metro, expressed fears over their health as a result of the poultry project.
“What our neighbour is doing is not legal. We fear for our health because his project is a breeding ground for flies and other insects.
“We have reported the matter, but nothing has been done so far,” one of the neighbours said.
The chicken project is attached to Mr Mwerenga’s staff quarters.
“It is also about a metre away from two neighbours’ boundaries and that is just violating our rights,” said the neighbour.
City of Harare by-laws stipulate the numbers of permitted chickens to be grown in residential areas and the structure of the fowl runs.
“No poultry house shall be placed nearer than three metres from any boundary or nearer than six metres from premises used for human habitation,” reads the Harare (Public Health) Amendment By-laws 2019 (Number 6).
“No person shall keep any poultry for reasons of continued crowing, quacking, clucking, gobbling or like noise that tends to destroy the comfort of the neighbourhood.”
According to the by-laws, the maximum number of poultry allowed to be kept within a residential set up are:
25 poultry per household for an area designated as high density suburb (up to 300 m2);
100 poultry per household for an area designated medium density suburb (301m2 to 900 m2)
405 poultry per household for an area designated low density suburb (901m2 to 2000 m2)
800 poultry per household thereafter
“Provided that should an owner or occupier of any residential premises wish to keep more than the prescribed number of poultry at the premises, he or she shall apply for a permit to the Director of Health Services,” further reads the by-laws.
A few years ago one Highlands man’s efforts at supplementing his income in order to provide for his family appeared to have riled his neighbours.
Sometime in 2015 Mr Charles Sigauke moved onto 14 Orange Grove Drive, Highlands, and put up his cabin.
Soon he added a fowl run and then started on a perimeter wall. It was his intention to keep chickens at the stand that riled his neighbours who raised issues of the number of the chickens being kept and the attendant smell, noise and fly nuisance.
Neighbours complained about the chickens to the Highlands District Office.
But Mr Sigauke argued that some of the residents complaining about his chickens were not his neighbours.
Asked how many chickens he had at that particular time, Mr Sigauke said “not many”, adding: “I do not keep them for a long time because I sell them. Right now there are not many. In fact, you do not know about the project until you get inside the stand. You do not smell or hear any unusual noise to warrant a complaint.”
But the Combined Harare Residents’ Association (CHRA) at the time pointed out the council by-laws had lost relevance as the municipality failed to take cognizance of the prevailing economic circumstances, characterised by loss of “formal” employment and the everyday economic challenges faced by residents of the city. — H-Metro/Suburban
