The Chronicle

BULAWAYO, Wednesday, November 30, 1966 — Gwelo Town Council last night decided it was not prepared to buy some property on its boundary – known as sub-division D of Clydesdale – which the council itself had some time ago asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government to demolish.

The property, described by the mayor, Clr CJ Roux, last night as “this eyesore we have on our boundary,” consists of 180 acres on which there is a general dealer’s shop, a butchery, a café, several small shops and accommodation for four African families, buildings formerly used as an African school, a small mill for grinding maize and two boreholes. Electricity is laid on.

In the letter offering to sell the whole or parts of the property to council, the owners’ attorneys state that in terms of their client’s title the use to which the property may be put is restricted to that of brickfields and such buildings as are normally incidental to brickfields.

The High Court had jurisdiction to amend these conditions but only with the consent of the Minister, who had in fact withheld it.

The Minister now required the owner, under the threat of prosecution, to demolish the buildings.

The attorney’s letter detailed the facilities the owner claimed he was supplying for a large number of Africans and suggested that if the demolition was enforced the council might have to provide similar facilities at its own expense.