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Herald Reporter
The small corner building in an otherwise empty stand in George Silundika Avenue was demolished yesterday, just a day after the group of people using it as a doss house and possible drug distribution centre, had been evicted.
The near-empty stand was a remnant, probably the last remnant in the city centre, of the early days of Harare when shops and other development were separated by empty stands.
These were gradually developed in the 1910s to early 1950s as owners, hit by rising rates, either built shops and offices, or sold the land to someone who would build, but it was a slow process.
But the small yard and little single-story corner building seemed to have missed the process.
At one time, there was a temporary shop in the corner storeroom, and at some point, the yard was used as a city centre car park by Government offices in Nelson Mandela Avenue.
However, when that arrangement fell through, the stand was walled off and then abandoned.
That came around the same time that a property mogul tried to buy out all stands between the multi-story Silundika House and Sam Nujoma Street to sell as a development block to a major property investor for a skyscraper.
But when one of the stand owners refused to sell, that project collapsed, and the other three properties returned to individual ownership, along with that owned by the family that refused to sell, and the abandoned yard.
The shack, seemingly a converted storeroom, was emptied of those who had slunk in to occupy the building over the last four years when the police and city council, under pressure from the War Veterans League, decided to move in.
Those in the vicinity suspected that those living in the storeroom were possibly engaged in largely illegal activity, with drug distribution and prostitution suspected.
While some residents would stand against the wall during the day, none ever appeared to be working.
Online Reporter