The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) has castigated Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume for his remarks made before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee regarding the circumstances surrounding illegal structures at the Raylton Sports Club.
In a statement released on Wednesday, July 24th, the NRZ criticised Mafume, saying he should have verified the facts with the Harare Town Clerk before appearing before the parliamentary committee. Reads the statement:
The NRZ would like to clarify some misrepresentations in averments by Harare Mayor, His Worship Jacob Mafume, regarding circumstances around illegal structures at the Raylton Sports Club.
While appearing before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, the mayor appeared to give the impression that tuck-shops built on the land the NRZ is leasing from council were constructed by the Railways.
That assumption is incorrect, a misdirection and misleading. The NRZ lays out the facts of the matter as follows:
1. The tuck-shops are illegal structures which are a result of a fraudulent collusion between a former Harare Raylton bartender and the illegal occupiers through event hire permits misconstrued as leases.
2. The City of Harare (COH), acting on the event hire permits proceeded to approve the construction of the illegal structures without the blessing of the parent leaseholder who is NRZ.
3. On discovering the anomaly, the NRZ then wrote to the City of Harare objecting to the approvals of those building plans for tuckshops on the basis that there was no official lease with NRZ and that it conflicted heavily with the authorised land use per NRZ’s subsisting lease with the COH, which only permits use of land for sporting, recreation and incidental social events.
4. The NRZ reported the case to police resulting in the arrest of the culprits and also instituted internal disciplinary processes which resulted in the dismissal of the bartender.
5. Acting on the basis of our objection, the COH proceeded to withdraw its approvals for the building of the tuckshops and issued demolition orders on paper which they never carried through.
5. NRZ has a pending eviction court case in the High Court against the constructors of the illegal structures with COH as co-respondents.
Given the foregoing, we are surprised that His Worship the Mayor was unaware of the actual facts on the ground, which he could have easily confirmed with the Town Clerk’s office before going to Parliament.
If he had checked things properly, he would have applauded our efforts to evict the illegal occupants instead of besmirching the NRZ.
NRZ persisted in seeking COH intervention when the illegal constructions were on foundation but to no avail.
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