7-day ultimatum for Gimboki squatters
GOVERNMENT has issued a seven-day ultimatum for all illegal settlers in Gimboki to voluntarily vacate the area or risk the humiliation of being evicted, while those illegally parcelling out land using the President’s name will be arrested and prosecuted.
The Manica Post can reveal that some unruly elements in Mutare were name-dropping President Mnangagwa’s name to give credence to their illegal machinations to hoodwink and fleece unsuspecting home seekers, much to the chagrin of national authorities.
The strong-worded ultimatum was issued by the Permanent Secretary of Presidential Affairs in the Office of the President, Mr Tafadzwa Muguti, at a meeting with stakeholders and residents at Gimboki Clinic on Wednesday.
The salvo came hard on the heels of a video clip circulating on social media wherein the alleged chief architect of the illegal allocations of pieces of land in Gimboki, Binali Yard was allegedly captured urging those he had illegally allocated land to regroup and take up their offers.
Yard and four others — Brian Marange, Tawanda Ndawe, Webster Mudzimwa and Trust Matimba — have since been suspended from the ruling party Zanu PF for five years for their deviant conduct.
Mr Muguti said those who had erected structures in Gimboki must move out within seven days or risk the humiliation of being evicted.
“Land in this country is not allocated by the counting of footsteps as measurement of one’s residential stand. You can only get land when there are legal papers showing the beneficiary’s name.
“Even if we wanted to regularise the settlement, how do we do it when three people are settled on one piece of land, all of them claiming to have been allocated the same piece of land?
“We are giving you seven days to remove your illegal structures and vacate the area. Failure to do so, we will come and help you do that. We have laws in this country, and they should be respected,” he said.
Given that Yard’s recent video clip appears to be a violation of his court bail conditions, Mr Muguti called for his immediate arrest.
Yard, together with Marange, Ndawe, Mudzimwa and Matimba, were in December last year arrested by a team of detectives from the Criminal Investigations Department’s Police Anti-Corruption Unit and CID Homicide from Harare.
They allegedly contravened Section 24 (1) as read with Section 24 (4) of the Regional Town and Country Planning Act, Chapter 19:12 (Unlawful carrying out development without permission) or alternatively criminal trespass as defined in Section 132 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, (Chapter 9:23).
They were granted bail by Mutare