Chitungwiza town planning haphazard

did not have a town planner, a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee has gathered.
Town clerk, Mr Godfrey Tanyanyiwa, said the municipality was now in the process of rationalising settlements in the dormitory town but most residents have grown impatient as they felt that it was taking too long.
He was giving oral evidence before a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Small to Medium Enterprises last week.
The committee chaired by Chiredzi West MP, Mr Moses Mare (MDC-T) wanted the committee to respond to allegations that council had unilaterally repossessed market stalls meant for SMEs with 99-year leases.
“Chitungwiza does not have further land for expansion. The challenge is that Chitungwiza never had a town planner, so all the planning and settlement that happened was haphazard as there was no proper planning, zoning and surveying,” said Mr Tanyanyiwa.
“We are saying let’s clear up the mess, we now have a town planner, we told them let the town planning department settle, but to them (residents) we are taking long,” said Mr Tanyanyiwa.
He said another challenge was that most of senior officials, including himself were relatively new after most of them were sacked for various reasons.
This, he said, would entail that it would require some time for them to appraise themselves with the issues at hand.
On the allocation of market stalls to SMEs, Mr Tanyanyiwa said the traders were allocated the stands and put up structures that were demolished in 2005 during Operation Clean Up.
He said council entered into an agreement with Africare, a non-governmental organisation to rebuild the stalls.
Two of the stalls were handed back to the SMEs but the third one was converted to commercial stands. The committee asked Mr Tanyanyiwa to furnish it with minutes and council resolutions to that effect.
It was also put to the town clerk that the SMEs had indicated that they had 99- year leases for the stalls but were unilaterally repossessed and given to some councillors.
Mr Tanyanyiwa professed ignorance on the existence of the 99-year leases, raising the ire of the committee that ordered him and his team to go and research.
Mr Mare told Chitungwiza municipal officials that two weeks ago Small to Medium Enterprise and Cooperative Development Secretary, Mrs Evelyn Ndlovu and SME representatives in Chitungwiza had complained to the committee over the manner in which council had handled the matter.
Hurungwe West MP, Mr Severino Chambati (MDC-T), said the conflicting explanations between council officials and what the committee heard from the SMEs were surprising. Mr Tanyanyiwa said as far as he remembered, no 99-year leases were given to the stallholders.
The committee told him that the SMEs representatives had brought with them documentary evidence showing that indeed they were holders of 99-year leases.
He had also failed to explain whether there was a council resolution or minutes to repossess the stands and turn some of them into commercial stands. Mr Mare then ordered the council officials to go back and research and bring documentary evidence.
“There is confusion here, we need to ask these guys to go back and research. We want to know the original owners and council resolutions of the change of use,” he said.
Mazowe South MP, Cde Margaret Zinyemba (Zanu-PF), questioned the logic of council to turn the stalls into commercial stands depriving low-income earners.
She said the role of councillors should be to advance the interests of the poor and the marginalised, but in Chitungwiza the city fathers seemed to be doing the opposite.