A four-roomed house was destroyed in Budiriro, Harare, last week by a rival as the battle to control Ngungunyana Housing Co-operative turned ugly.

The chairman of a faction which is reportedly trying to take control of the housing co-operative, Mr Luke Chesango, is alleged to have fired six shots in the air to disperse a crowd that wanted to stop the driver of his grader from destroying his rival’s house.

Mr Chesango was picked up for questioning by the police in Budiriro on Thursday afternoon in connection with the incident.

No one was injured when the shots were fired. thestate media witnessed Mr Chesango being arrested. He was taken to Budiriro 2 Police Station. The grader was still parked at Mr Tikho Sibanda’s house, which had been destroyed.

In an interview, Mr Sibanda said they had been having squabbles with Mr Chesango for a long time.
According to Mr Sibanda, Mr Chesango was elected chairman by Ngungunyana residents in the absence of Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing officials.

“Chesango was assisted by his lawyer, Paul Mangwana, to get an eviction order against me.
“I had to go into town to get a recession of judgment and stay of execution papers so that the default judgment could be suspended.

This is when my child called me to inform me that Chesango’s grader was already destroying our house.

“When they tried stopping the driver of the grader, that is when Chesango fired the gun and escaped.”

Mr Sibanda told thestate media that he was elected as chairman of the co-operative in 2009.
In 2013, Mr Chesango allegedly formed a parallel structure and mobilised people.

In 2015, Mr Sibanda was accused of leading a committee that abused member’s subscriptions.
Police spokesperson Chief Superintendent Paul Nyathi was not reachable for comment.-state media