Chitown dangles Nyatsime saga solutions

By DUNGWIZA REPORTER

IN A bid to avert impending financially crippling lawsuits, the cash-strapped Chitungwiza municipality has stepped a gear up by seeking urgent government intervention to comprehensively address challenges bedeviling the Nyatsime Housing scheme saga.

In an exclusive interview with Zim Community News, acting housing director Tendai Chinganga said the problems in Nyatsime were not impossible to resolve as long-lasting and mutually beneficial solutions were in place to address these multifaceted challenges.

“But we believe the problems in Nyatsime are not insurmountable, there are problems that can be resolved in a manner that will benefit both the beneficiaries, Chitungwiza Municipality and Manyame RDC.”

Also in response to a gap created by the administrative vacuum on six farms in dispute Chitungwiza councillors on Monday passed a resolution seeking government’s intervention to revive the Manyame-Chitungwiza joint committee (MACHI).

Government set up MACHI through Statutory Instrument 211 of 2021 to manage Braemer, Longlands, Cawdor, Edinburg, Tantallon and Dunnottar farms.

However, the six-member committee stopped functioning amid allegations that the joint committee was pursuing self-interests after the government appointed UdCorp to act as a local authority in the same area.

Chinganga proposed that if this joint committee has failed, Chitungwiza is in a position to run this scheme because the obligations are heavily weighed against the municipality.

“As it stands we have the Statutory instrument which is still valid and extant the joint committee was constituted in terms of Statutory Instrument 211 of 2021, which statutory instrument as of today has not been set aside, so legally the joint committee is still a recognised legal creature which is capable of suing and being sued in its own name.”

He added that if the government was reluctant to allow Chitungwiza to  administer Nyatsime,  the only practical solution outside the joint committee was to establish an independent  local authority  to manage the affairs of the six farms.

“What it would then do is that it would then assume both the liabilities and assets associated with the task, in my view that is the only solution to this situation but at the moment Chitungwiza municipality remains heavily exposed and is in danger and the situation is threatening to get out of hand if it is not urgently addressed.”

Proposed solutions

Chinganga grouped those affected by the scheme in one way or the other into four categories, based on findings by Chitungwiza.

• (i) The first category is those people who are holding on to our offer letters and other related documents who have managed to go on the ground and settled themselves in their rightful stands. That is the first category, and in our view it will be a question of regularising their stands and giving them additional relevant documents so that they start paying to council and they also process other accompanying documents.
• (ii) The second category are those who have council documents but are occupying stands which are not theirs, within the same category there is category A and B
• Category A are those who are occupying stands which are not theirs, but are of equal size to the stands that they are supposed to be occupying.
• So our approach on those ones is that we will just switch because in terms of size they are occupying stands which are equivalent to the ones that they were supposed to be occupying.
• Category B are those who are holding on to our papers and they have decided to occupy stands which are bigger than the stands that they were initially allocated.
• So there are two options on those ones, either to redirect them to their original stands or to allow them to stay at the current stands were they are occupying at the moment and ask them to pay an additional cost to what they had already paid say they paid for 200 sqm but are now staying at a 500 sq m stand, so they have to pay for this other difference plus damages because they are staying on a stand which is not theirs, so we would certainly need to extend some penalties in case we might need to compensate the originally allocated person.
• (iii) The third category is that of those who are only holding on to our paper work, but they have not been afforded the opportunity to physically take occupation of their stands.
• With respect to this group, we are of the view that once we get all the details either we are going to engage the ministry so that they can give us additional land so that we accommodate these people or we are left without an option except to refund them and certainly with compensation.
• (iv) The fourth group is composed of those who have decided to take the law into their own hands assisted by land barons, they don’t have any paper work either from Chitungwiza Municipality or Manyame Rural District Council they were settled by pressure groups and some political parties, but they are on the ground.
• We have got two options for this group, the first option which was once tried but with very nasty results is eviction. I am aware that sometimes the council attempted to evict these people on the strength of a court order and the council staff and the messenger of court were all thoroughly bashed. I am told they fled from the area. These are the hazards of option number one, but we are aware that there is now political will to decisively deal with this issue given the position of government on land barons so we are of the view that we might possibly ride on that one.
• Option number two is to temper justice with mercy, we will not victimise the victimized, the understanding is that these people have already been victimized by land barons who stole money from them, whilst the land barons are going to face the full wrath of the law we will deal with these people who are  on the ground by making sure that they pay the true value of the stand in addition to the true value of the stand they will pay the compensation for that particular stand which will be extended to the person who should rightfully have occupied that stand.
• So this is how we will possibly approach this issue having taken into consideration all the various variables and the political, social and economic dynamics which have also surrounded this scheme.
• The layout for this area in terms of residential the scheme had 15 000-plus those in high density are 10 542, medium density 1 670 and 2 875 are low density stands.
• Every space in Nyatsime is accounted for by a stand number be it an open space or Zesa servitude.
• Then in terms of institutional; these are the schools, crèches and everything, they are 95 stands and 132 commercial stands, so the scheme is quite self-containing, there are some engineering designs that were also done by Chitungwiza Municipality