Another land scam has reportedly unfolded in Glen Norah, Harare with ZBC News reporting that there is a house built on a road.
This comes as some residents who had built their houses in wetlands have lost properties worth thousands of dollars after their homes had flooded following recent rains.
A Glen Norah resident who spoke to ZBC News also said a council official has already started building in a crescent, and two more houses have already been built under power lines. The anonymous resident said:
We have tried to raise concern over the construction of houses in inappropriate areas. That house is under a power line. Here again, it’s a house being built on a road.
This is happening when Harare City Council is in the process of demolishing structures erected on undesignated sites or illegally acquired land.
Only recently, the local government razed down almost 200 houses in Budiriro as it had emerged they had been allocated without following due council procedures.
Meanwhile, National Housing and Social Amenities minister, Daniel Garwe, said all houses built on illegally allocated public land will be demolished as Government seeks to restore order in urban settlements.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa also declared war on land barons who have for years been duping desperate land seekers.
Some observers slammed the local authority for watching as structures are erected and only come to demolish when owners would have lost thousands of dollars.
There are some who believe that the bogus housing schemes are a creation of the ruling ZANU PF as a strategy to win votes from those who would have been allocated the land.
More: ZBC News