Harare City Council garners for land illegally sold by barons

Harare City Council says it intends to recover city and state lands that have been taken over illegally by land barons and sold off to desperate home seekers.

Harare has a housing backlog estimated at around 500 000 and has a target to deliver 105 000 houses by 2018 under the government’s economic blue print, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (Zimasset).

Acting town clerk Josephine Ncube told a press briefing today that council had already started pulling down illegal structures built on the designated land and has roped in the police to arrest officials involved the illegal land sells.

“As council we sympathize with residents who chose to listen to land barons instead of the council which controls development in its area of jurisdiction. But while we commiserate with them, we are determined to bring order in Harare and to restore the invaded land to its planned use,” she said.

Ncube said some of the land that has been invaded was planned for schools, clinics and recreational facilities.

Police spokesperson Charity Charamba who was present at the briefing said the police would arrest the land invaders.

“Police are passionately appealing to all the affected members of the public to corporate so that these land barons are arrested and made accountable for their illegal deeds,” she said.-The Source

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