Harare City Council Cries Foul As Land Barons Weaponise The Law

Land barons have illegally taken over more than 140 sites across Harare, with the city council struggling to enforce regulations due to legal manoeuvres used to delay demolitions and other enforcement measures.

Harare City Council’s housing and community services director, Admond Nhekairo, told the Parliamentary Thematic Committee on Climate Change that land barons were resorting to “lawfare”, the strategic use of legal processes, to block the municipality’s efforts to reclaim public land. He said:

There is now a tendency by some of these invaders to quickly rush to the courts with dirty hands and apply for spoliation orders.

We end up in court for two years while illegal developments continue. Even when the city eventually wins, we are left to take corrective action.

The Environmental Management Agency (Ema) says it’s received more than 150 applications for developments on wetlands, ranging from Environmental Impact Assessments to land-use change requests.

EMA’s acting director-general Christopher Mushava said the applications are coming from both private developers and the City of Harare itself.

This comes as Harare continues to grapple with a major housing crunch. According to the city’s master plan, the situation has reached crisis levels, with overcrowding now the norm in many neighbourhoods.

The report points to families squeezed into single rooms and a lack of middle-income housing options, with most of the city’s housing stock, around 67%, being high-density.

More: NewsDay

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