Mazowe council sells hospital land

VILLAGE heads in Chiweshe have clashed with management at Mazowe Rural District Council after the latter parcelled out land reserved for expansion of Rosa Hospital to businesspeople.

Mazowe Central MP Sydney Chidamba (Zanu PF) met the ruling party’s local leadership early this week to discuss the matter after being petitioned by disgruntled villagers.

“We petitioned our MP after we saw our hospital land being given to businesspeople and that structures were being built without our consent. We want the leaders to help us because we need to develop our hospital,” one of the village heads, Garikai Kanengoni, said.

The hospital administration said it is in need of more land to expand the hospital and build staff houses.

Council engineer Cleophas Mupereki confirmed that they did not consult the village heads during allocation of the stands which encroached into hospital land.

“We did not consult you (village heads) because it was expansion of the land that had already been allocated through the initiative of ward nine and 10 councillors,” Mupereki said during the meeting.

Zanu PF politburo member Fortune Chasi said council should consult villagers as enshrined in the country’s Constitution.

“This issue is simple, we have a Constitution that governs us and the council is mandated to consult villagers first, and hence we should be at peace here in Mazowe,” Chasi said.