Harare’s dens of lions

Sydney Kawadza Senior Features Writer
One building sticks out like a sore thumb along Harare’s Luck Street. Its charred walls and graffiti are testimony to the hideous activities that take place behind them.Since it was razed down by a fire sometime in 2002, no-one has made an effort to rebuild the structure or even cordon it off from rogue elements.

Today, even its name has been forgotten. What remains are its sooty walls that hint at the host of soul-shattering activities that take place there.

During the day, three to four men are usually perched on its roof like sentries on fort duty. The building is not accessible to the ordinary person and, as such, one is quickly warned not to enter these premises. Not that you need to be told. Merely passing through the area sends chills up and down the spine and warns one off.

Welcome to Luck Street near Harare’s Kopje, home of abandoned buildings and all things illegal. The people who have legitimate businesses in the area tell of the illegal activities that take place behind the blackened walls.

“The place is a safe haven for common criminals who terrorise ordinary people on the streets of Harare because it is not open to everyone. It is where stolen goods are hidden and these guys are also into hard drugs and other immoral activities,” a vendor who cannot be named for safety reasons said.

It is also said people pay an entrance fee to enter the building.
“You can negotiate with those guys (pointing at the hoodlums perched on the roof) and maybe they will allow you to enter but you have to be careful.”

Why would anyone pay to get into such buildings?  Some use these premises for quickie sex, most obviously illicit, and others come to take drugs there.

“This is Kopje’s Sodom and Gomorrah because all the vices that you can imagine happen there and I guess its high time the owners of the property take action,” Ambuya Stella Chimonyo said.

Harare seems to be losing the battle against urban rot as charred and abandoned buildings dot the city scape. These buildings are the testaments of collapsed companies and rising vice.

Closer to the CBD is Ximex Mall, shut down towards the end of the year for demolition as it was deemed unfit for human habitation.
Since it closure, the building has attracted more illegal street dealers than ever before. They can sell you anything from jewellery, to cellphones to hard narcotics.

Many of the items sold at Ximex Mall are believed to have been stolen. The hustlers who prowl the area as their own throw their garbage through broken windows, while others have broken windows so that they can enter and relieve themselves inside.

Ximex Mall, once owned by the late property mogul Sam Levy who converted the former Duly’s car showroom first into a department store and later into a shopping mall, was bought by the National Social Security Authority.

NSSA spokesperson Mr Phillimon Chereni last year indicated that demolition would commence this month to pave way for a new up-market building.

In April last year, Harare City urban planning director Mr Psychology Chiwanga said council had condemned more than 10 buildings in 2012 for failing to comply with city by-laws on safety and health.

Some of the condemned buildings are Robin House, Dublin House, Doventry House, Stewart and Lloyds, Bush House, Roslin House, Msasa House and Vivandelphi Court. Many of these have deteriorated further. But they still stand tall and ugly.

Small businesses are run from these dingy premises, with some buildings having as many as 800 tenants in them despite there being no running water, ablution facilities and safety features like fire escapes.

The city has said about 40 percent of Harare’s high-rise buildings are not compliant with its health and fire safety standards. Over a decade of illegal sanctions have taken their toll on the economy, and many property owners simply cannot find the money to maintain their buildings.

Even threats to demolish condemned buildings for violating health, fire and safety standards have gone unheeded as more and more small business take advantage of cheap but limited accommodation found there.

Some have not seen any improvements even from the days of the late Harare executive mayor Solomon Tawengwa who at one time went ballistic and threatened to increase rates and tariffs at old buildings.

Harare City Council spokesperson Mr Leslie Gwindi said efforts have been made to encourage developers to complete their buildings within stipulated time frames.

“If the land belongs to council we give a four-year-old grace period to complete the building. Failure results in council repossessing the stand and re-selling it to other developers,” he said.

Mr Gwindi said if the structure had been partly developed there is some form of compensation given to the developer. He said the standard procedure for abandoned buildings was for the proprietor to lock up the structure and allow a third party to renovate it for proper use.

“If the city notices that the frontage of a building is dirty or that the building itself is dirty, an abatement order is issued to enforce the owner to spruce it up.

“If the building belongs to council, the respective director would be issued with an abatement order as well,” Mr Gwindi said.
He said council had a host measures to ensure tenants’ safety.

“These include regular inspections of the buildings to ascertain their structural stability and the safety of the occupants. The inspection includes an audit on ablution facilities and other health facilities, fire exits and extinguishers.

“If any shortcomings are noticed, the building will either be closed or the owners would be given a time frame to rectify the problem. If the deadline is not met, the building will be closed,” Mr Gwindi said.

Mr Shingira Tayerengera of the Urban Development Corporation said there was need to invest in property development.
He said barriers to proper investment included:

High rentals in the CBD leading to businesses shunning these offices and occupying residential spaces bordering the city like Milton Park, Belvedere and Belgravia;

· Sub-urbanisation – business shunning CBD offices for shopping malls in suburban areas like Westgate and Sam’s Levy Village;
· Economic challenges that have led to building projects taking long to complete, or to be abandoned; and
Lack of maintenance, ignorance, lack of capital for maintenance purposes leading to urban blight.

He explained, “In addition, there is need for a review of the rentals being charged by the property owners so as to attract more businesses to the CBD. Renovation of the buildings to maintain their aesthetic value is also essential in reducing abandonment. Urban regeneration coupled with re-branding can also useful.”

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