adminMukachana Hanyani
A LOT of Zimbabwean urban dwellers have been under pressure to own houses in various cities and towns where they work and reside, but such dreams have been eluding them for time immemorial.
It has not been good news for most of the people who have been lodging and renting at those who were fortunate to own houses as that move is not conducive to those with large and extended families.
Some city fathers have been using the issuance of housing waiting list scenarios as a way of trying to register people who were/are homeless so that they get to know the total number of those with no houses.
Having a total number of the homeless makes the city fathers look for land for them. In some cases residential stands are allocated. The issuance of some waiting lists in which some individuals pay certain amounts so that they get registered and then get some waiting list numbers has not helped the homeless to get stands. That move has resulted in some homeless citizens losing money to some city fathers.
Some waiting lists are renewed every year and one is bound to part with his/her money for the list to be renewed thereby continuously adding money into the city fathers` coffers.
Actually the issue of the waiting list only helps the city fathers to get extra money for their operations with those on the waiting list getting nothing in return. Some city fathers can receive as many applications as possible from some home seekers knowing very well that they have no land to accommodate those home seekers, thereby fleecing the desperate home seekers of their hard won cash.
Those people have now taken it upon themselves to make sure that for anyone to get a stand, he/she should have a waiting list number. This sounds as a genuine approach, but the bottom line is for the city fathers to make money out of nothing. This is where the problem of land barons becomes manifested.
The failure by the city fathers to legally allocate stands to some home seekers in various cities and towns have created the issue of house cooperatives as a means to lessen the burden of some city fathers in allocating stands to home seekers.
Housing cooperatives have made it necessary for some people to get stands, but they have also created the land barons menace. The problem of the land barons has in the country has led to a lot of people losing their cash in the pretext that they would get decent houses and stands.
Some land barons who of late have been fleecing people of their hard won cash have left some people homeless as some home seekers fell victim. They are sold nonexistence stands. In some cases some people are sold illegal stands thereby inviting law enforcements agents who end up destroying such illegal houses.
Only recently some illegal structures which were built along Airport Road in Harare were demolished by the city fathers because they were situated in an illegal location.
Surprisingly, the Harare City Council failed to stop such illegal buildings when they were being built as early as 2008, only to demolish them when other people had safely settled there with their well-built houses.
While the victims along Airport Road were crying because their structures were being destroyed, the land barons who benefited a lot from those unfortunate house seekers were left untouched.
Instead of the city fathers to come out and deal decisively with those land barons who sold the stands to the victims, the city fathers went ahead and destroyed those houses without compensation. Some land barons have benefited a lot from selling illegal stands to some desperate home seekers and Government as well as some city fathers around the country should make sure that those found on the wrong side of the law are brought to book
Since the turn of the 21st century at the height of the land reform programme in the country, some land barons emerged who sold illegal stands to desperate home seekers knowing very well that they do not own any land.
Some of the illegal stands sold to desperate home seekers appeared genuine leading to some people to believe that they have finally got what they have been waiting for, for quite a long time. So the issue of the land barons should be put to finality by arresting those people who took advantage of the homeless people by selling them illegal stands.
Online Reporter