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The Harare City Council is partly to blame to the mess that is taking place at the roundabout, although it has now sent letters warning illegal structure owners to take down their structures or risk them razed down soon. Not only have the City Fathers allowed the situation to deteriorate by not enforcing its laws that preclude illegal activities and buildings but some of its workers have also been complicit in the building of illegal structures.

It has emerged that the Harare City Council’s inspectors and workers at the works department have been approving defective site plans and buildings.

A case in point involves a long-running legal battle between Messrs Hosea Oziah Ncube and Simbarashe Mupinga in which the latter sued a non-existent stand number and built a mall, which now faces demolition after it has been found to be encroaching onto Simon Mazorodze Road.

The Harare City Council sent a letter early this month instructing Mr Mupinga to halt any developments and to take down the illegal structure. According to plans seen by The Herald, Mr Mupinga claims ownership of stand 694/Remainder and has been building on that land.

However, investigations at the Surveyor-General and Deeds Office indicate that no such designation exists, 694 being a road on the masterplan of the area and the remainder of that land belonging to Mr Ncube, who has title to that land, meaning Mr Mupinga is not only building on land that he does not own but also encroaching onto Simon Mazorodze Road.

Faced with the prospect of demolition, Mr Mupinga blamed it on the City Council for approving his project.

“I have been to the department of works and they have been approving this structure. It is only now that I’m surprised they are saying they want to demolish what they call illegal structures,” he complained.

Another property owner, who asked not to be named, said he blamed council for allowing him to build. Some businesses operators said that it was wrong for council to evict them now yet they had been left undisturbed for up to three years.

But council spokesperson Mr MIchael Chideme confirmed the city’s warnings and challenged anyone who claimed to have been inspected by city official to approach the authorities. He stated that City Fathers had given owners ample time to pull down their illegal structures before authorities moved in.

“Yes, those letters were served to the people who have put up illegal structures,” he said.

“What people need to do is to pull down their structures so that they can preserve their material for reuse or to recover costs.

“We are not in the business of just destroying property but if people cannot pull down such structures we will do it for them and if we do so, we will bill them for doing the work for them.

“The whole idea is to ensure that we have an orderly city,” he explained.

He said: “They should furnish our council through the Director of Works with all the relevant information so that we will be able to get to the bottom of the matter.

“There is no way council will sanction the stages of an illegal structure. If any of our officers has been doing that, the director will take the necessary action.”