Tug-of-war over land

trespassing and malicious damage to property!
But the leader of the group, which is involved in laying telecommunications cables, says they have neither invaded, nor violated anyone’s land.
This is council land, he adds.
A call to the city council confirms the worst.
Most of Harare’s posh suburbs are characterised by huge mansions and beautiful gardens in and outside the premises.
It is little wonder that Mr Ncube from Borrowdale was really gutted when workmen made their unwelcome visit to his place.
“Why have you been allowing me to grow my garden there if the land belongs to you, why it that I am the one responsible for cutting the grass and keeping the open spaces clean?” Mr Ncube screamed at the city council official when he called to report his predicament.
Many onlookers sympathised with him.
They debated as to who owned the land because the city council claimed that they owned the land but they have not been maintaining it in any way on the other hand property owners in the area were claiming that they own the land because they were the ones who were maintaining it.
A neighbour, Mrs Tapera, said it was not fair that they have to maintain the area outside their gate and when they think they have achieved something the council comes and destroys all they have worked for.
“We all know that we have never had power over these pieces of land, the council will do what they want when they want we are just supposed to roll over and nod. It is so difficult to accept that they own the land because it is on our properties and they never come to cut the grass at any given time,” she fumed.
However, many people do not seem to be aware of the fact that as much as they are allowed to grow gardens or beautify the space outside their gates, it is not, was never and will never be their land.
In fact, some of these gardens and landscaping constitute barriers and make it difficult to drive around, pull off the road or find parking space.
This scenario is prevalent along such highways like Mazowe, Mutoko and Domboshava roads that pass through some of the posh suburbs.
Town planner Mr Percy Toriro said people should not and must not put any barrier on that land because it belongs to the council therefore it is public land.
“Property owners should know that their jurisdiction ends on the peg that marks their stand or property and thus they should not claim the land as theirs, any land outside your property is owned by the relevant authorities running that particular town,” he said.
He went on to add that that space is basically left for road extension and it does not mean that the council has not yet constructed a road they have no intention of doing so.
“The road is supposed to stretch from one stand to the other stand across the road but because of factors like the unavailability of funds, the space is still open but reserved for the extension of roads.”
All this information being known to the public they still find it difficult to just leave their gardens uncovered for people to just trample on their beautiful flowers or to park on their well maintained lawns.
According to the revised edition of the Urban Councils Act Chapter 29:15 of 1996 Volume 5 Section 156 (1) (c) if any land which is by a municipality or town or is under the control of a council is encroached upon, the council may take such steps as it considers necessary to remove or regularise the encroachment and, without derogation from the generality of the foregoing, the council may require the removal of the encroach-ment.
And this means people in the leafy suburbs might have to cope with the occasional call for the use of their land for various purposes that include telecoms, electricity, water reticulation and so forth.
This has been obtaining for a long time lending to the old Posts and Telecommunications Corporation being given the sobriquet of “Pese Tino Chera” because of the way they used to dig while repairing faulty telephone cables but never bothered to cover up afterwards.
Today it is the same situation with the fibre optic craze that has hit Zimbabwe, you find heaps of dust on almost all highways and through most suburbs.
Mr Toriro added that those who are digging these trenches should do so in a planned manner and they are supposed to seek permission from the responsible authorities as it affects the movement of traffic.
“Road closures are supposed to be advertised in advance to warn both motorists and pedestrians as it is illegal to just close a road without prior notification to the general public and permission from authorities,” he said.