RESIDENTS are pushing back against plans to convert Hatfield’s golf course into 17 low-density residential stands — the latest battle in a city steadily losing its green spaces.
The Ministry of Local Government and Public Works recently issued a notice under Section 49(4) of the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act signalling its intention to approve a change of reservation for the Remaining Extent of Lot 227 in Hatfield Township.
The property is currently reserved as a golf course under the Waterfalls/Hatfield Local Development Plan Number 6.
Residents have 30 days to lodge objections.
But beyond the legal notice lies a deeper question: how much more green space can Harare afford to lose?
The proposed conversion is another troubling example of environmental planning giving way to short-term land conversion at a time when the capital is already struggling under the weight of overcrowding, failing infrastructure, and shrinking recreational areas.
Harare has walked this path before.
Wetlands have repeatedly been targeted for housing developments despite their environmental importance. The most recent controversy surrounds attempts to build on the Monavale Vlei — a wetland of international significance and a crucial ecological buffer for the city.
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Elsewhere, recreational spaces have quietly disappeared beneath housing developments. The pattern is equally visible in Chitungwiza, where public recreational land has steadily been converted into residential stands.
An urban area without recreational facilities is not simply poorly planned — it is a symptom of urban collapse.
The Hatfield golf course is a functioning public asset: an environmental buffer, a recreational space, and part of the city’s already limited urban breathing room. Reducing it to residential stands reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of what modern cities require to remain liveable.
Urban planning is about balancing density with liveability.
Cities that ignore that balance eventually pay the price through flooding, rising urban heat, pollution, and deteriorating mental well-being. Harare is already experiencing such pressures.
Removing yet another green space will not solve the housing crisis — it will deepen the infrastructure crisis that already defines the city.
Zimbabwe’s housing demand is real and urgent. But urgency does not justify poor planning. Once green spaces are lost, they are rarely recovered. What disappears today will weaken the city’s long-term environmental resilience.
There is also a troubling governance issue. Residents have repeatedly raised alarm over land allocations involving public spaces, often pointing to a history of irregular conversions and elite capture.
What is also worrying is that there appears to be a growing trend of people taking land meant for golf and recreational use and building houses on it.
If planning decisions continue to be made without transparent, long-term environmental accountability, then every new “development” risks becoming another step in Harare’s slow urban self-destruction.
The city does not need fewer recreational spaces. It needs more.
The Hatfield proposal must be rejected.
A city that sacrifices its green lungs for short-term gain is dismantling its future — one parcel at a time.
