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Kariba Municipality wins land dispute against Zimparks

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The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) has lost its bid to claim Charara Safari area after its application seeking to bar the Kariba Municipality from carrying out any construction or development in the area was dismissed by the High Court recently.

The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) has lost its bid to claim Charara Safari area after its application seeking to bar the Kariba Municipality from carrying out any construction or development in the area was dismissed by the High Court recently.

BY CHARLES LAITON

Through its lawyers, Zimparks filed a court application claiming a portion of the land measuring 368 650 square metres stretching from Kasese River to Charara River in the eastern direction towards Kariba Airport. Zimparks argued that the land in question belonged to the wildlife management authority since it was being used for wild animal management purposes.

But in opposing the application, Kariba Municipality said while Zimparks was carrying such duties in the area, it had no title to the land, hence it did not have the authority to claim ownership of the same, adding the municipality had always been the title holder of the land under deed of grant 4006/2006 dated September 12, 2005. In his determination on May 22, 2019, High Court judge Justice Owen Tagu ruled in favour of Kariba Municipality and allowed its expansion drive to continue.

“In my view, the applicant (Zimparks) controlled the area in question for purposes of managing wildlife. The owner of the land is the respondent (Kariba Municipality). At law, the owner of the land cannot be interdicted from utilising its land in the manner he/she deem fit. In casu (in this case), the title deed for the respondent is extant and the applicant has no clear right over the land,” Justice Tagu ruled.

He further said at no stage before 1999 did Zimparks institute litigation for the setting aside of the municipality’s title to the land and neither did it produce any title deeds to the property other than claiming that it had been in control of the said land.