NEW: Raylton Sports Club bartender parcelled leased land to tuck shop owners 

Online Reporter

The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) says a bartender working at its recreational facility, Raylton Sports Club in Harare, colluded with illegal land occupiers to facilitate the illegal construction of tuck shops at the club.

In a statement, NRZ, who are leasing the land from the City of Harare, said the alleged culprits misrepresented event hire permits as leases to get permission from council to erect the structures.

NRZ sought to address Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume’s statement to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee insinuating that the structures were erected by NRZ.

“The NRZ would like to clarify some misrepresentations in averments by Harare Mayor, His Worship Jacob Mafume, regarding circumstances around illegal structures at the Raylton Sports Club,” reads the statement.

“While appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the Mayor appeared to give the impression that tuck shops built on the land the NRZ is leasing from council were constructed by the railways.

“The tuck-shops are illegal structures which are a result of a fraudulent collusion between a former Harare Raylton bartender and the illegal occupiers through event hire permits misconstrued as leases”

NRZ claims the City of Harare, acting on the event hire permits, proceeded to approve the construction of the illegal structures without the blessing of NRZ as the parent leaseholder.

“On discovering the anomaly, the NRZ then wrote to the City of Harare objecting to the approvals of those building plans for tuck-shops on the basis that there was no official lease with NRZ and that it conflicted heavily with the authorised land use, which only permits the use of land for sporting, recreation and incidental social events,” reads the statement.

“The NRZ reported the case to the police, resulting in the arrest of the culprits and also instituted internal disciplinary processes which resulted in the dismissal of the bartender.”

Acting based on NRZ’s objection, the City of Harare proceeded to withdraw its approvals to the building of the tuck shops and issued demolition orders on paper, which they never carried through.

NRZ has a pending eviction court case in the High Court against the constructors of the illegal structures, with the City of Harare as co-respondents.