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Former councillor parcels out council land

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HARARE City Council and former Zanu PF councillor Evelyn Njiri are headed for a fresh showdown amid reports that the latter was illegally parceling out

HARARE City Council and former Zanu PF councillor Evelyn Njiri are headed for a fresh showdown amid reports that the latter was illegally parceling out pieces of council land in Southlands to party supporters.

Staff Reporter

NewsDay yesterday saw several Zanu PF supporters from Harare South queuing at the site which is close to Irvines Chickens, were they were being given stand numbers after paying $10 and filling in application forms which bore President Robert Mugabe’s portrait and a Zanu PF emblem.

Applicants were also being asked to produce Zanu PF membership cards.

“All this information is going to be entered into a computer so let us all make sure that we are organised and provide exact details required,” one of the Zanu PF youths manning the makeshift office at the site said.

Harare deputy mayor Thomas Muzuva said the land allocations were illegal.

“The exercise that she is carrying out is illegal. She must know that she is no longer councillor for that area as there is a new councillor — Rai Gwenambira (Zanu PF) — whom she lost to during the 2013 elections,” Muzuva said.

“The new councillor knows all about land planning procedures, sewage and related facilities needed for various areas.

“There isn’t even a council resolution in place to that effect.”

Njiri could not be reached for comment as her mobile phone was continuously engaged.

Some residents of Southlands accused Njiri of misleading and fleecing party members by conducting a “dubious” land allocation exercise.

In 2010, violence broke out at Hopley Farm when members of Njiri’s housing co-operative clashed with former Harare South MP Hubert Nyanhongo’s followers over land.

The skirmishes left three party members injured.

The latest development comes shortly after Goromonzi MP Petronella Kagonye (Zanu PF) reportedly clashed with

7 000 party members after she allegedly tried to wrest residential stands she had earlier given to them in the run-up to the 2013 elections.

A similar scenario is obtaining in Bulawayo where suspected Zanu PF supporters invaded a council-run animal sanctuary and parceled out land among themselves.