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Civil servants petition council over stands

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ABOUT 100 civil servants, who were allocated residential stands at Ntabazinduna Township by a land developer N&S Properties, have petitioned Umguza Rural District Council (RDC) over its failure to approve their stands, amid claims of massive irregularities.

ABOUT 100 civil servants, who were allocated residential stands at Ntabazinduna Township by a land developer N&S Properties, have petitioned Umguza Rural District Council (RDC) over its failure to approve their stands, amid claims of massive irregularities.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

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The local authority argues that the land developer sold the residential stands outside the scope of their agreement, leaving the area looking like a squatter camp, as the stands were not pegged in accordance with council procedures.

The council added that the area does not have sewer and water reticulation systems.

Last month, council chief executive officer, Collen Moyo ordered N&S Properties to stop carrying out any development in the area until further notice.

He instructed the developer to demolish all unapproved buildings “that you are erecting and restore the land to its original state within 30 days from the publication of this enforcement order”.

The order will come into effect on Sunday.

However, in a bid to stop the eviction, about 31 affected families wrote a petition opposing the enforcement order.

“We, the Ntabazinduna Housing Scheme beneficiaries, write this petition concerning the enforcement order published on March 15 by Umguza Rural District Council CEO, Moyo, against land developer N&S Properties, which is representing us and providing services on our behalf to realise our dreams of becoming home owners through legal ways,” part of the petition signed on March 24, 2017 reads.

“We entered into an agreement with the said land developer, which has legal reason to render such services because of a full council resolution, which was passed in 2008 to allow N&S Properties to undertake such on our behalf. We strongly feel that the CEO Moyo is harbouring selfish, narrow-mindedness selfish motives (sic).”

Civil servants involved are police, prison officers, soldiers, teachers and nurses.

“What worries us is that, initially, the council accepted our $20 for the waiting list fee for the concerned stands and now, (it is) refusing to approve our housing plans under unclear reasons,” the petition continued.

“We, on this petition, call upon all relevant authorities in the Republic of Zimbabwe to come to our rescue to realise our dream of becoming home owners, above all our fundamental rights in our country as expounded by various pieces of legislation and also fulfilling government initiatives through the ZimAsset (sic).”

Officials from the private land developer were unreachable for comment yesterday.