HARARE – A commission of inquiry investigating the operations of Harare City Council since 2017 has heard allegations that councillors from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) engaged in the illegal allocation of over 5,000 plots in the run-up to last year’s harmonized elections.
This practice, aimed at securing votes, reportedly mirrors similar actions taken by opposition councillors in previous election years.
According to evidence presented to the commission, at least 349 illegal housing cooperatives were hastily regularized, with councillors pushing for the approval of an additional 5,000 stands just before the elections. These efforts bypassed standard procedures, raising concerns that councillors were using land allocation as a means to bolster their re-election chances.
Harare Town Clerk Hosiah Chisango admitted that councillors were exploiting land regularization policies for personal gain, particularly during election periods. Minutes from a joint committee meeting on May 29, 2023, revealed that another 24 settlements, comprising 5,066 stands, were recommended for regularization, pending approval from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works. However, Mr. Thabani Mpofu, who is leading the evidence, noted that these stands were not included in the official list compiled by city officials, suggesting they were directly added by the councillors.
Chisango struggled to explain why such a significant number of stands were suddenly earmarked for regularization just before the elections and why they had not been previously identified by his team. It also emerged that the council passed a resolution to revoke court orders for demolitions in areas like Crowborough Paddocks, where unauthorized land sales had taken place. Mr. Mpofu accused the council of acting as an accessory to these illegal activities, effectively legitimizing land invasions through its resolutions.
Further testimony revealed that land reserved for public purposes, such as churches, schools, clinics, and wetlands, was being converted into residential stands through council decisions. Councillors reportedly used a tactic known as “rotating” to intimidate senior council officials who resisted their proposals, threatening them with reassignment to other roles.
When questioned about his role in allowing these illegalities, Chisango stated, “This has been resisted by officials, and even in the minutes, you will find councillors raising concerns about non-implementation, as it was our position that those resolutions could not be implemented.”
Reacting to the revelations, Combined Harare Residents Association director Mr. Reuben Akili expressed shock at the council’s failure to enforce its own resolutions on housing cooperatives, passed four years ago. He suggested that ongoing engagement with these cooperatives implied potential links within the city’s planning and land allocation departments.
Harare Residents Trust director Mr. Precious Shumba criticized the councillors, describing them as self-serving politicians focused on personal enrichment rather than serving the interests of the public. “The ongoing commission of inquiry into the City of Harare is revealing what we have always known—that the councillors in the City of Harare are driven by greed and self-interest,” Shumba stated.
Source: Online