The politics of Harare’s open spaces

By Aiden Musarurwa
Harare; Zimbabwe

Harare City Council bulldozing houses

The fear of open spaces is called agoraphopia. It is a strange sensation of feeling detached and alone, so various definitions go.

It appears some sections of the local authority and leading political players have a deep seated fear of open spaces, if the number of housing developments that went up in virtually every vlei, hill and open ground over the last five years or so is anything to go by.

How else could one explain where once there were restrictions on construction, housing projects now grace the land? From the ubiquitous two-roomed cement breeze block flat roof structures, to tiled houses that look like they cost a pretty penny to put up, these have strung up in Harare and Chitungwiza and are now the subject of hot debate involving the local authority, the house owners, so-called land barons and the inevitable politicians.

Some of the houses before demolition 

When the City of Harare announced plans to demolish the illegal structures there was a feeling that they would not follow through on their threat - mainly because the city councillors are largely from the MDC-T party, which is the opposition to the ruling Zanu PF party.

Letters sent out by City of Harare to warn residents to move off the land (Source: 263Chat)

The Mayor of Harare, Bernard Manyenyeni who has acquired a reputation as a straight talker, led from the front once his bulldozers got rolling. He is also in touch with today’s trends, announcing his council’s position on Facebook.

“We are very keen to protect the city’s superior town planning and in doing that, we discourage any form of unplanned settlements. Where this has gone ahead without authority, we first seek opportunities for regularising as many of the structures as we possibly can,” Manyenyeni said.

Mayor of Harare - Bernard Manyenyeni (Source: nehandaradio.com)

The council spokesman Michael Chideme weighed in.

“Harare residents should learn to respect land uses. There is land meant for schools, clinics and recreation. We should make sure we do not tamper with such land.”

Most of the land has been distributed by people with links to the ruling party. These are the so-called land barons. In Zimbabwe, you know you have acquired notoriety once you are a baron. In the mid 2000s anyone dealing in foreign currency as the Zimdollar plummeted to new depths was called a cash baron.

To the casual observer, these are a bunch of speculators keen to make a quick dollar off the residents, for whom ownership of property is a lifelong dream.

The reality seems to lie a bit deeper.

Sources close to the land developers have said there is a deliberate attempt to create pockets of people loyal to the ruling party in various constituencies in order to wrest control of Harare and Chitungwiza from the MDC-T.

In Harare South, for example, the ruling party has been winning the seat ever since thousands of people were resettled on Hopley Farm. The same scenario almost rang true in Harare East with the settlement of people on Caledonia Farms leading to a close race there, before eventually leading to Zanu PF winning the seat in a by-election.

The constituency boundaries are getting murkier and murkier as once elite suburbs like Borrowdale are now joined with Hatcliffe, while Mandara is now linked with Caledonia.

The political hand was finally played last week when Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere said the council should regularise the settlements and let people live on the land, while the political issues in the background were settled.

Local Government Minister - Saviour Kasukuwere (Source: nehandaradio.com)

“Harare City Council will take over this land and ensure that it is serviced and the houses here are not demolished,” Kasukuwere said after touring an area near Mufakose with businessman Billy Rautenbach, whose links to the ruling party are well documented and who was claiming ownership of the land.

Billy Rautenbach - Businessman (Source: www.newsday.co.zw)

A political show of strength was also exposed here as the land was allegedly traded between Rautenbach and a Zanu PF MP which has collected millions of dollars from the residents without passing on the money to the local authority.

"The councils are seized with issue. Whoever received cash will have to account for it and to explain on whose authority they carried out the allocation," he said.

The Chairman of the Council’s Environmental committee is in no doubt to blame.

Herbert Gomba trained his guns on residents and politicians.

“I have seen residents associations blasting council for acting but never heard them educating residents about good citizenship, which includes abiding by the laws of the country. I have heard council being asked questions like ‘why did you allow them to settle there?’ but never heard these illegal settlers being asked questions like ‘why do you do illegal things being misled by politicians?’” Gomba said in an interview with a local weekly.

It is enough to make one’s head spin, and this is just one of the areas where the background to open spaces runs deeper than the surface.

As the bulldozers ran through the community, the old saying about the grass suffering when elephants fight rings louder and truer.

All the residents’ interviews say they got documentation to prove they own the land and that council inspectors came and checked all stages of construction.

The City of Harare’s Head of Water, Engineer Christopher Zvobgo has been suspended pending an investigation into how settlements now being declared illegal were connected to the Council water supply.

City of Harare's Head of Water - Engineer Christopher Zvobgo (Source: www.herald.co.zw)

“We did not just bring ourselves here. Most of us spent over $40 000 building our houses. Money which was hard to get, and now we are sleeping outside. Surely someone must make up for this. Someone has to pay for this.

Remnants of demolished houses 

“At the moment nobody wants to be accountable. Council says it is the MP, MDC says it is Zanu and Zanu says it is MDC.

“This doesn’t help me. My family and household property are being rained on every day and nobody can tell me what I did wrong,” says Dickson Madamombe, fists clenched and eyes red with frustrated fury.

He is a victim of the apparent desire by some people to see any open space filled with housing and people, even if that comes at such a high cost to the people who give their all to populate these spaces.