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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
A businessman’S bid to change his property in Mt Pleasant, Harare, from residential to business premises failed after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal to quash a decision by the Administrative Court that forbade illegal commercialisation of properties. Mr Anthony Makintosh applied to the City of Harare in December 2010 for a permit in terms of the provisions of Regional Town and Country Planning Act to alter the use of his property from a residential to business premises.
He wanted to use it as a motorcycle showroom and offices.
But the application was rejected on the grounds that there was no proven local area need for the proposed offices as they were of no benefit to the community and the showroom was prohibited in terms of the operative local plan. The city also took into account the fact that Mt Pleasant was losing its residential character due to illegal commercialisation of the properties.
The city indicated in its response to Mr Makintosh’s application that Mt Pleasant Business Park catered for office needs in the area, and residents must retain the residential aspect in the remainder of the neighbourhood.
Dissatisfied with the city’s decision, Mr Makintosh approached the Administrative Court for relief but the appeal was disallowed.
He then sought the intervention of the Supreme Court but Justice Vernanda Ziyambi upheld the Administrative Court’s decision.
“In the final analysis, this court is un- able to interfere with the judgment of the learned President (of the Administraive Court) unless there has been a misdirection. . . ,” said Justice Ziyambi.
“I find no such misdirection in the judgment of the learned President. He took into account all relevant factors and was alive to the law applicable in such cases.”
“Such a development, the President found, would have disrupted the harmonious and co-ordinated development of properties in that area as there would be more noise and motorcycle traffic than would be the case in a quiet residential area,” she said.
The City of Harare, she said, was obliged — in terms of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act — to formulate policies for the co-ordinated and harmonious development of the use of land in its area of jurisdiction.
In this case the City was concerned with interests of the public in the area as opposed to individual interests, she ruled.
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