Nyatsime litigation threatens to liquidate Chitown

THE looming threat of litigation from Nyatsime housing scheme saga beneficiaries has heavily exposed Chitungwiza municipality to bankruptcy, the acting housing director Chinganga has revealed in an exclusive interview with Zim Community News.

In 2005, Chitungwiza sold over 11 000 stands covering Braemer Farm (818 3586ha) and Longlands Farm (215,64ha) and due to overwhelming demand by beneficiaries, the municipality ended up subdiving the stands to create an additional 15 457 stands.

Through Statutory Instrument 211 of 2021, government later set up a six member joint committee, made up of three councillors each from Chitungwiza Municipality and Manyame Rural District Council to manage the six farms located in Ward 9.

The committee, which has powers of an urban authority, managed Braemer, Longlands, Cawdor, Edinburg, Tantallon and Dunnottar farms situated in ward 9 in the district of Seke in between the area administered by Chitungwiza Municipality and that administered by Manyame Rural.

Chinganga said along the way the joint committee stopped functioning after the then Local Government minister replaced it with Urdcorp after he felt that the joint committee was not equal to the task as some members were  pursuing self-interests.

He said the ministers decision, which created an administrative vacuum on the six farms turned into residential areas, particularly Longlands and Bremer, is threatening to get out of hand if it is not urgently attended to.

 “However, notwithstanding the absence of an administrative structure to effectively run the affairs of the six farms particularly Longlands and Bremer, Chitungwiza Municipality continues to be bombarded on a daily basis with litigation coming from the people who were offered these stands from the beneficiaries of that scheme who failed to take occupation of their stands, Some are coming to claim compensation.

“I would say the situation is not that good, it’s not rosy, this council risks going bankrupt, in fact one would say it’s technically bankrupt, because if all the people who were offered these stands were to come and launch  group litigation against council we will  be talking of millions of dollars which this council doesn’t have. So in a way the situation has exposed this council.

Three are four groups of people who have settled in the area; those allocated stands by Chitungwiza council, paid for them, and built houses and other structures without prior council approval.

We are going to publish Chitungwiza’s proposed solutions to resolve the Nyatsime housing saga after today’s full council meeting that is set to discuss the matter.