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Mandaza Chikarango Herald Reporter
Zanu PF District Coordinating Committee (DCC) Zone 6 youths have slapped the Harare City Council (HCC) with a US$1 million lawsuit for the wares they lost during a demolition exercise in Mbare which the youths say was illegal.
The demolitions were carried out allegedly at the instigation of a businessman who laid claim to the area the youths were operating from using a lease agreement suspected to be bogus.
Operating under the auspices of the Mukuvisi Business Park near Matapi Police Station, the youths have since engaged lawyers, Pfigu Attorneys to act on their behalf to secure compensation.
The lawyers have since served HCC with a letter demanding US$1 million for goods lost during the demolition exercise in October.
In the letter of demand, the lawyers claim that the demolitions were carried out on the basis on what they allege to be dubious a lease agreement between HCC and the proprietor of Ajara Trucking Logistics (Pvt) Ltd, Mr Ronald Ajara.
Available documents indicate that Mr Ajara secured a lease agreement for stand number 40783 measuring 5 000 square metres which the youths are suspecting to be fraudulent because of anomalies and irregularities reflected in the papers.
The lease agreement bears the signatures of former HCC town clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango and deputy mayor Clr Enock Mupamawonde as well as Juliet Ajara.
The agreement was signed on the 12th of August 2020 during the height of Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
It is alleged that Mr Ajara was the one who directed front-end loader operators to demolish the youths’ business structures without the involvement of the sheriff who should task the police to back such operations.
Asked to comment on the matter yesterday, former town clerk Eng Chisango could neither confirm nor deny signing the agreement.
He said he did not remember whether or not he appended his signature to the document because of the passage of time.
“I cannot say whether it’s my signature or not since a number of documents passed through my office. I can’t remember,” said Eng Chisango.
The business union was formed through the assistance of the party’s DCC Zone 6, and the contentious lease agreement showed that Mr Ajara was supposed to occupy 5 000 square metres instead of the 10 000 squares he was claiming in a letter he wrote to Zanu PF Youth Harare Provincial Chairman Cde Emmanuel Mahachi requesting assistance to disband the business union.
The youths led by Mr Fanuel Kambarami, who is the chairman of Mukuvisi Business Park, had occupied the place for close to a decade insisting that they expected a court order to vacate the place on 48 hours notice so that they would have enough time to remove their goods.
“Our clients advised us that if the notice had been issued to them, they would have looked for an alternative place to relocate to and to remove the members’ property.
“They lost property worth US$1 031 720 and it is in light of the above that our client instructs us to demand, as we hereby do, payment of the sum of US$ 1 031 720 (one million and thirty-one thousand seven hundred and twenty dollars) being the value of gross replacement costs for the damaged properties within seven (7) working days of being served with this letter failing which, we have instructions to institute legal proceedings against you and claim legal costs on a higher scale,” reads the letter from the traders’ lawyers.
Cde Kambarami indicated that they had initially brokered a verbal agreement deal with the HCC and were paying rentals for their trading stalls at Sunningdale district offices as members of the business union made up of 70 members.
The suspicious lease agreement between HCC and the Ajaras was signed when the country was under total lockdown and three days before the Government made an announcement on the extension of the lockdown.
Cde Kambarami said : “The lease agreement was brokered at a time when only essential service providers were allowed to operate. I learnt this by diligent research. Mr Ajara might have misguided the courts to issue an order to vacate the place,” said Cde Kambarami.
Zanu PF shadow Member of Parliament for Southerton Constituency who is also DCC Zone 6 Secretary for Finance Cde Andrew Makahamadze condemned the demolitions insisting there could have been a better way of resolving the issue without the youths losing their wares.
“We are worried about how some individuals can mislead our professional courts and institute a demolition which is not procedural,” said Cde Makahamadze.
Lawyers representing Mr Ajara are still to respond to the letter of demand issued through Pfigu Attorneys.
Online Reporter