Chronicle EditorSimba Jemwa, Sunday News Reporter
GWANDA mayor Councillor Njabulo Siziba said he is going to engage stakeholders in the security sector to intensify the fight against criminal activities while calling on council to regularise business operations in an area popularly known as Greenland in Phakama Township (Ward 8) that has become a notorious haven for all illicit activities.
Speaking to Sunday News in an interview last week, the Mayor expressed concern that the town was at the mercy of criminal elements that have descended on the former brick moulding stand and have begun engaging in all forms of criminality with all forms of weaponry from guns, axes, machetes, knives and knobkerries.
“Yes, we have an area called Greenland here in Gwanda in our suburb of Phakama. And yes, there have been reports of criminality in that area that concern the council, local police and residents. However, I think some of these stories could have been spiced up with lies, but most of them are true.
“Greenland has become a very troublesome area. Reports we have been receiving suggest that it has become a hotbed for all sorts of activities, but I cannot substantiate these reports. What I do know for sure is illegal selling of liquor by people without licenses. I hear that there are people selling dangerous drugs there.
“People have been butchered in Greenland. It has become notorious for violence. However, the place has a political history – originally it was set aside for a youth centre. The original youths registered with council are no longer there, but as a place that was opened for business, business has been going on but most of the business has been illicit and unregularised,” Clr Siziba told Sunday News.
He said Greenland has become problematic and a thorn in the flesh for people living in the surrounding areas.
“It is time that we regularise this place. We decided that we are going to give people who are currently occupying this place a seven-day notice and then we close down the place. We are looking at a total shutdown after which we will try and regularise operations.”
A member of the residents’ association, Mr Wellington Nare said Greenland was formerly a council brick moulding project that was leased to the community sometime in 2009.
Council, he said, first leased it to one Mr Mpofu whose lease expired and between 2015-16, after which three youths then won the lease as a brick moulding project.
“However, they failed to live up to the terms of their lease and instead turned the area into an illegal business complex characterised by all forms of drug abuse, illegal bars and various illegal shops on this stand of no more than 1 500 square metres. As a community we feel the applicants to the land must refer to the application they made to the council which they have failed to honour and our solution is to close the place and bring down all structures.
The position of residents has been very clear – this place is a hive of all criminal nuisance and drug abuse. It is also not in compliance with several local authority by-laws, so the only position is for council to enforce a total closure and lease termination. Those who want to do business must apply to the council for another piece of land which is not that one because it is near a sewer stream, Manzamnyama, which is a dangerous zone.”
However, the Greenland Youth Centre Committee has since written a letter to council and the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution in Matabeleland South Province, Cde Abednico Ncube, arguing that the council wanted to shut down the place to deny business opportunities to Zanu-PF youths. They asked the minister to intervene and stop council from closing the place. – @RealSimbaJemwa
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