ANTI-RIOT police were called in yesterday as members of two Zanu PF-aligned housing co-operatives in Harare’s Aspindale area resisted demolition of their illegal structures by a private company claiming ownership of the land.
BY MOSES MATENGA
Members of Vineyard and Nodville housing co-operatives are fighting over ownership of the land with a private developer trading as Marimba Industrial Properties.
In yesterday’s drama, the two parties clashed after the private developer hired a front-end loader and demolished one of the cooperatives’ houses. The residents immediately surrounded the driver and pelted him with stones, forcing him to speed off before one of the private developer’s officials fired a shot in the air to scare away the residents.
Harare City Council spokesperson, Michael Chideme said the local authority was not involved in the demolitions, as the land belonged to a private developer.
One of the co-operative members described the demolitions as illegal, claiming they had documents to prove their ownership of the land.
“The matter was in the courts only to have these people coming here to say remove your properties. That is why you see some people have already done that, but we wonder why they targeted this house,” said one of the co-operative members, commenting on condition of anonymity.
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In August, the High Court ordered more than 1 000 families settled in the area to stop housing developments and vacate the site until finalisation of the court case. The court ordered the respondents to stop construction on the land and remove all their equipment from the site.
