By A Correspondent| The City of Harare has expressed grave concern over the rampant and continuous illegal land invasions taking place in various suburbs in the capital city.
Suburbs such as Glen View, Retreat (Harare-Chitungwiza Railway Reservation), Budiriro, Mufakose, Crowborough, Kuwadzana, Tafara/Mabvuku, Kambuzuma, Warren Park, Glen Norah, Mabelreign, Chisipite, and The Grange have been specifically mentioned as being affected.
According to City of Harare, unscrupulous land barons are exploiting unsuspecting home seekers by generating counterfeit allocation letters, receipts, and diagrams.
“Council has noted with concern the continuous illegal land invasions in various suburbs such as Glen View, Retreat (Harare-Chitungwiza Railway Reservation), Budiriro, Mufakose, Crowborough, Kuwadzana, Tafara/Mabvuku, Kambuzuma, Warren Park, Glen Norah, Mabelreign, Chisipite and The Grange among other surbubs.
“Land barons are generating fake allocation letters, receipts and diagrams to which they use to dupe unsuspecting home seekers,” reads part of the CoH statement.
These fabricated documents according to CoH are used to deceive individuals who are in search of affordable housing.
The Council has also observed that the land barons are falsely informing the beneficiaries that settling on these unauthorized spaces will eventually be regularized by the City and as a result, these individuals are coerced into erecting illegal structures, often under the cover of darkness or on weekends, and are compelled to inhabit substandard and makeshift cabins.
“It must also be said that, City of Harare’s noble initiative to try and regularize old settlements that suit the regularization template generated by the City is now being abused by lands barons through fresh land invasions and falsely believe that such settlements will be regularized,” said CoH.
Council urged residents to be aware that Section 49 of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act does not provide for the retrospective regularization of settlements located in reserved areas such as wetlands, institutional grounds, and recreational parks.