adminMunicipal Reporter
FAKE offer letters for residential stands in Mabelreign suburb of Harare are on the rise in an area where land invasions have been taking place with council officials allegedly being victimised for trying to demolish the sprouting illegal structures.
Some council officials’ (names supplied) are allegedly being threatened by land barons with death while others are receiving heavy persecution over foiled attempts to demolish the illegal structures.
Mabelreign was designed with strips of public open space between each block of housing, and there have been several attempts over the years to sell off these strips legally and illegally.
The latest effort involves a set of stands numbered 3725- 3733 on a plan labelled TPF/WR/46/20.
These stands were allegedly converted to residential stands.
However, the required approval of the Minister of Local Government and Public Works was never given for this conversion, which is opposed by many in Mabelreign.
While the offer letters say plan TPF/WR/46/20 was approved on May 21, 2020, there are no traces of this plan within the council’s files and it is reportedly missing in the Town Planning division records office where it should ordinarily be kept.
Harare Housing director Mr Addmore Nhekairo denied the existence of stand number 3727 which falls under the fraudulent plan.
“As for the allocation of Stand 3727 Mabelreign by way of a letter dated 6 July 2020 said to have been originated by Edgar Dzehonye, I would like to point out that the said letter is fake as it did not originate from my office nor does it bear my actual signature,” he said.
Harare director of works Engineer Zvenyika Chawatama confirmed that the plan is fake in confidential papers in our possession.
“We note that the fake layout plan created nine residential stands 3725-3733. We also note that the created stands are on a public open space. We view the issue of fraudulently creating and annexing a council public open space seriously,” he said.
Ward 16 councillor Denford Ngadziore also confirmed witnessing an increase in land invasions by what he termed “politically connected land barons”, saying all structures erected illegally on greenways and open spaces will be demolished soon.
“This is to avoid squatter camp settlements in our community. I am going to request for the manpower of municipal police and development control officers who are supposed to be stationed at Mabelreign District council office until the demolition exercise is completed,” he said.
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