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Farai Kuvirimirwa Court Reporter
A district administrator does not have authority to allocate land to developers in metropolitan centres, outgoing Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister Ignatius Chombo has said. Minister Chombo said this yesterday in a US$4 million fraud case where Mr Justin Zvandasara, Tichaona Suruware and Blessing Sigareta are being accused of grabbing land belonging to Zanu-PF Central Committee member Cde Nyasha Chikwinya and Jonathan Gapare in Hatcliffe, Harare.
“A developer assists members of the co-operative with his or her own resources. Members were asked to pay a chairman who purported there were certain activities on the piece of land belonging to the State without relevant development to benefit them.
“We said do not pay anybody any money and we wanted harmony to prevail. We felt that by suspending all payments we will put a committee to administer all co-operatives,” he said.
Minister Chombo said from the documents produced as exhibit, only one came from his offices and the other was approved by one Kawondera who is not authorised to offer land to developers.
“Assistant district administrator Kawondera does not deal with land and offer letters. I do not know him. I guess he exists but he never consulted me. Government would not approve a development plan without looking at the population density but between 10 and 20 percent of the residential stands will be owned by the Government,” he said.
Minister Chombo said he tried to create harmony between Zvandasara and Cde Chikwinya before he referred them to Ambassador Amos Midzi.
“Chikwinya brought a plan many years back and we asked her to take it to Mr Mlalazi (a Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development official) and it was approved. Mr Shawatu is the director of all State land and principal advisor to Government on acquisition of land who controls the 10 to 20 percent of State land which will benefit civil servants.
“We decided to halt co-operatives after there were lots of infighting between and among local authorities in Harare. No political party will tell us what to do and we do things according to the Urban Councils Act and we have lawyers who assist us,” he said.
Prosecutor Mr Oliver Marwa alleges that Zvandasara is the president of an unregistered Harare North Housing Co-operative Union while Cde Chikwinya is the director of Pilgrims Rest Properties, which specialises in property development.
It is alleged that during the land redistribution exercise, Cde Chikwinya was allocated Pilgrims Rest Farm measuring 150 hectares before Government re-demarcated the land into two where the other half was allocated to Mama Mafuyana Housing Co-operative.
Alternative land for Cde Chikwinya’s company was also identified at Hatcliffe North Phase two.
On June 21 last year, Cde Chikwinya and the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development signed a memorandum of agreement allocating the land and transferring administration into her name. She started servicing the land subdividing it into low, medium and high-density stands under layout plan number HOE27.
Zvandasara, who knew about the project, misrepresented to unsuspecting home seekers that he had lawfully acquired the same piece of land and sold 496 stands to home seekers who immediately occupied the land.
In the second count, the complainant is Jonathan Gapare who is chairman of Alpha Developers, a company, which is also in the business of developing properties.
Gapare applied to Government for a piece of land adjacent to that of Cde Chikwinya.
Using the same modus operandi, Zvandasara sold 324 stands prejudicing Gapare of US$1 555 000.
Harare Magistrate Mr Themba Kuwanda postponed the matter to October 16 for ruling.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter