Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi on Tuesday said that the government is investigating the recent demolitions of houses in Harare carried out by the opposition-dominated City Council without a court order.

This comes after members of parliament questioned the reasons behind the demolitions. Ziyambi said that the government was not involved, adding that no court order had been issued for the demolitions. He said:

In fact, in this particular case, it is the Municipality of Harare that demolished the houses without a court order.

Everything that the honourable member has said falls squarely into the hands of the city authorities.

They are the ones that have been allowing the buildings to be built. They are the ones that have demolished, you can go and check, they were demolished without even a court order and we have also requested that this be investigated.

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Ziyambi also concurred with fellow legislators that authorities should prevent the illegal construction of houses and not wait until the houses have been completed to effect demolitions. He said:

I agree with you. Why wait until a house has been built and then you send bulldozers to destroy it? Some of the houses were beautiful structures and it is not even fair to those people.

So, I believe it is a point of national interest but it is a point that our local authorities largely controlled by the opposition, must also have a humane face and be able to articulate some of these issues from a human rights perspective.

On Wednesday, November 13, the City of Harare said that it had intervened to stop illegal land allocations by land barons in the Belvedere area, specifically in Ridgeview, where unauthorised developments had been taking place.

In a statement, the City confirmed that the land in question is legally owned by the local authority and is designated for residential use.

Approved for development in 2002, the area contains 52 unserviced residential stands, with valuations completed by the Council in 2021.

The city council said that despite the land being unserviced—lacking basic infrastructure such as water, sewer systems, roads, and drainage—a company called Brickstone Builders and Contractors illegally occupied 15 of these stands and began constructing structures.

In 2022, the City of Harare met with Brickstone Builders to inform them that they needed to follow proper procedures to acquire Council land. However, by July 2023, illegal construction had resumed, posing health risks to the surrounding community.

Brickstone Builders claimed to have received a land allocation letter from the Ministry of Local Government, but the Ministry later disowned the document, confirming it was fraudulent.

Despite receiving 48-hour notices from the Council to halt construction, the company obtained a court interdict based on the fake letter, which prohibited further development.

However, when Brickstone Builders ignored the court order and continued building, the City of Harare took action and demolished 30 of the illegal structures.

According to the council, the remaining three structures, covered by the interdict, will be addressed through further legal action.

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