Reprieve for Kingsdale residents Mr Mliswa
Mr Mliswa

Mr Mliswa

Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Six hundred Kingsdale Farm residents on Friday got a reprieve after the High Court ordered all evictions and demolitions to stop forthwith until the dispute is finalised today.

Norton legislator Mr Temba Mliswa had sought the intervention of the High Court for an order stopping land developer Maparahwe Properties from demolishing houses belonging to co-operatives allocated stands on the farm.

However, Justice Felistas Chatukuta moved the matter to today to allow Norton Council to file its opposing papers, but stopped the evictions and demolitions until the matter is decided. All parties’ lawyers confirmed the development soon after the hearing of the urgent chamber application.

Advocate Kith Kachambwa said the judge stated no demolitions would take place. “On Monday, the matter will then be heard because the respondents have asked for time to file their opposing papers after being served with the application this morning,” said Adv Kachambwa.

Norton Council lawyer Mr Douglas Mwonzora confirmed the development saying: “The matter was postponed to allow the respondents to file their papers because they had not been served with the application and of course the judge granted us costs on a higher scale for Norton Council being dragged to court without being served with the application.”

Mr Mwonzora

Mr Mwonzora

Government acquired Kingsdale Farm in 2006 at the height of the land reform programme and parcelled it out to housing co-operatives and other private purchasers.

Several allottees took occupation of the land and built their structures. In an urgent application filed at the High Court last week, Mr Mliswa sought to have all the evictions and demolitions stayed until the finalisation of the matter. He argued that there was also a pending case at the Administrative Court involving the same parties.

The legislator accused Maparahwe of defying the Constitutional Court order, which dealt with the dispute in 2015. After the co-operatives took occupation of the land in terms of the land reform laws, Mr Mliswa argued, the residents met all the costs as required by Norton Town Council for the first phase on sub-division and occupants were allocated stands on tags pending regularisation of the Surveyor-General’s Office processes.

It is also Mr Mliswa’s contention that Maparahwe has resold over 370 stands allocated to the co-operatives. The continued private sale of already occupied stands, Mr Mliswa said, had caused mayhem and disharmony in his constituency.

The legislator also accused Maparahwe of using hooligans to demolish the occupants’ dwellings unlawfully. He said all the victims’ efforts to get assistance from the police were fruitless, claiming that the officers were siding with Maparahwe.

Maparahwe Properties is strenuously opposing the application on the strength of various court orders it obtained from the same courts in the long-drawn-out dispute.

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