Court bars demolition of Chitungwiza houses

A Chitungwiza court today barred the Chitungwiza Municipality from demolishing houses that it said were built on undesignated sites saying that this would be an infringement of the owners’ constitutional rights. Magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa said: “The court rules that (Chitungwiza Municipality) has no power to demolish homes as stipulated in Section 74 of the Constitution which states that: ‘No person may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances’.” There have been reports of rampant corruption is the selling of stands in Chitungwiza and around Harare and hundreds of desperate house-seekers who bought stands from property barons could have their homes demolished. Zengeza East Member of Parliament Alexio Musundire claimed in the house that Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo was going to benefit most from the demolitions because he had several property companies which included Harvestnet Investment, Waywick Investment, Waycorn Investment, Tonewick Investment and Nedbourne Investment.

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