The Harare City Council has demolished a house belonging to Prophet Tapiwa Freddy and five others this Thursday, 28 September.
Freddy is a pastor/prophet, founder and leader of Goodness and Mercy Ministries, a prosperity church based in Harare.
Harare deputy mayor Cllr Kudzai Kadzombe said the demolition was in response to a petition by residents who said the houses were allocated by the council without doing due diligence on a road in 2017.
Posting on X, Kadzombe also said the City of Harare will allocate new stands to the affected residents as well as construct houses for them, with council covering all expenses including sourcing building materials. She said:
We have received inquiries about why Prophet T Freddy’s house and 5 others were demolished today. This was a result of a residents’ petition as these houses were allocated by council without doing due diligence on a road in 2017 and it blocked school children and other residents, Who had to use a longer and dangerous route to go to school and work etc.
The affected families are in the process of being reallocated new stands and their houses constructed and materials supplied by the City of Harare builders at no cost to the victims.
Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused to the Glenview community and the affected families.
Kadzombe, however, did not disclose where the demolished houses were located. Harare City Council has, in the past few years, been destroying houses and structures built on land acquired illegally.
In April 2020, the Harare City Council demolished Freddy’s church in Glenview high-density suburb, saying it was built on land acquired illegally.
More: Pindula News