The Chief Director of Spatial Planning and Development in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works, Shingirayi Mushamba, has urged Zimbabweans to exercise patience and desist from acquiring land from land barons.
Speaking to reporters in Harare on Wednesday, 10 January, Mushamba said that the Government has earmarked land for housing stands in all the country’s 10 provinces. He said:
Exercise patience, your government is in the process of ensuring that planned land is accessible and delivered in a very transparent manner in all our provinces, districts and some growth centres.
There will be sufficient land that will be identified and planned for and arrangements put in place for that land to be serviced so that you can then build your houses with the assurance that as soon as you complete the process, you have title to the land where you never again have your property being demolished.
So we are calling upon stakeholders to support this process that we have embarked upon.
Last month, ZANU PF demanded that all illegal land occupations, sale or parcelling out of land and stands, as well as illegal developments, on communal, local authority and State land stop forthwith.
ZANU PF Finance Secretary Patrick Chinamasa warned land barons masquerading as ZANU PF members to stop their illegal activities.
The illegal activities of land barons have resulted in the mushrooming of shanty settlements across the country and the construction of homes on wetlands and riverbanks in urban areas.
From time to time, local authorities, especially the City of Harare, demolish structures built on land acquired illegally leaving residents, who would have spent their life savings on buying the land and building houses, in the open and at the mercy of weather elements.
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