The development comes as the city of Harare embarks on what the Health Director has called a blitz to “regularize” shops and “restore sanity”. There are already concerns that the capital will face another mass demolition similar to “Operation Murambatsvina”.
The Epworth families were asleep when the bulldozers arrived early Sunday morning, from a development company called Sunway City. The company had acquired a High Court order, claiming the structures were illegal and built on land reserved for light industrial development.
Many of the families, after organizing and building homes under the Chinamano Cooperative, lost everything and had nowhere to go. Christopher Kembo, head of the Cooperative, reportedly said the notice did not give them enough time to make other arrangements for the victims.
According to the state run Herald newspaper, Kembo said they had appealed to the authorities at Sunway City for a grace period “to make decent arrangements to shelter the affected families”, but the plea fell on deaf ears.
Sunway City is a subsidiary of the government owned Industrial Development Corporation of Zimbabwe Limited (IDC).
Precious Shumba, Coordinator at the Harare Residents Trust (HRT), expressed deep concern at the development, saying there is a lot of corruption involving councillors and other city officials in Harare.
“There is a lot of corruption in the housing cooperatives, involving the Department of Urban Planning and officials at the Department of Housing and Community Services. Many people, including councillors, have formed their own cooperatives and are being conniving,” Shumba explained.
He added that many of the councillors have forgotten where they came from and now represent the interests of the city management officials, instead of the residents that elected them.
According to Shumba the council allocates land, which includes commercial stands, to the cooperatives. They then charge the cooperative for servicing the commercial stands. The charges include water and sewage reticulation, mandatory gravel roads, and new charges that are known as “intrinsic charges”.
Meanwhile the Director of Health in the Harare City Council is alleged to have recently announced that the city will undertake a blitz and close all illegal shops, in order to regularise business structures. – SW Radio Africa
Post published in: News