Obey Musiwa
Herald Reporter
ZANU-PF Harare DCC secretary for business and development and shadow legislator for Southerton, Cde Andrew Makahamadze, has described Harare City Council‘s 14-day ultimatum on unregularised settlements as too harsh.
On October 26, 2026, Harare City Council’s acting Town Clerk Advocate Warren Chiwawa issued illegal settlers with a 14-day ultimatum to comply with regularisation requirements or face immediate demolition of their structures.
The notice targets beneficiaries of settlements recommended for regularisation and issued with partial certificates of compliance before the September 23, 2023 cut-off date.
It also ordered them to pay regularisation penalties, the full intrinsic land value and penalties for illegal construction.
In addition, those targeted were required to submit building plans for approval and pay for illegally installed roads, water and sewer infrastructure.
Cde Makahamadze said the tone and timeframe did not give the affected people sufficient time to put their houses in order.
“We all want people to be compliant. But officials should address residents respectfully and not as though you are dealing with hoodlums or unruly people,” he said.
Cde Makahamadze said the settlements in question were built using people’s hard-earned money and as such, council was supposed to treat the matter delicately.
“Why are residents being given only 14 days? Why not a year or even two years since processing paperwork usually takes time because of delays,” he said.
Cde Makahamadze argued that such a short deadline pushes desperate residents to indulge in corruption.
“In my view, officials should be pacifying residents’ fears, not stoking them. Residents who would not have fully complied should be made to pay hefty fines instead of being threatened with bulldozers,” he said.
“If somebody has put in an investment, let us interrogate, let us investigate. Not to send in a bulldozer.”
Cde Makahamadze said he was not opposed to the Government’s directives but wanted those tasked with implementing them to do so humanely.
“The Government under the able leadership of our President has done very well in instituting development and improving the lives of all Zimbabweans, but the way some people are implementing the directives is threatening to undo that great work,” he said.
“Council should be complementing this development, not undermining it.”
Cde Makahamadze also criticised Mayor Jacob Mafume’s plan to demolish school tuck shops over allegations that they were being used to peddle drugs.
“Tuckshops offer convenience because they break bulk goods from big corporates into affordable portions, so anyone who wants them closed is out of touch with reality and is killing the President’s vision of an upper-middle-income society by 2030,” he said.
“If any of the tuckshops are being used to peddle drugs, especially to learners, they should be investigated and closed, but it would be wrong to apply a blanket approach to all tuckshops because there are people who rely on these for their livelihoods.”
