Council Statement
Harare City Council has produced a statement warning residents at Crowborough Farm and other illegal sites to move away before demolitions begin. Below is the full statement:
The farm is used for wastewater treatment. This means any human settlement on that farm is a huge risk to the health of all Harare residents.
We cannot allow a human settlement on a wastewater farm. There is a high risk of diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other water borne diseases.
We are therefore advising home seekers not to be coerced into buying land at undesignated residential plots. Buying such pieces of land is self-defeating and a waste of resources because council will not authenticate illegalities.
We have, however, noticed that each time we issued warnings and prohibition orders, some people took advantage of our humane approach and decided to entrench their illegal activities in the mistaken belief/hope that such settlements will be regularised.
For the record Council will not consider regularisation of illegal settlements on wetlands, institutional sites or farms particularly Crowborough farm which is designated for wastewater management purposes.
It would be unfair not to mention that some of the land invasions are ‘politically’ motivated with the leadership of the invasions falsely aligning their actions with political parties.
Council has however done its research and established that no political party wants to tarnish their images by engaging in illegal activities when they can use the law to obtain residential land for the people.
By this notice we are calling on all people that invaded Crowborough and any other council land to move out on their own before we take action.
Statement Ends.