Rains capture ills of parallel development
THE onset of the rainy season provides residents living in the new suburbs sprawling at the edges of Harare with a puzzling contradiction.
Because most of them rely on boreholes and shallow wells for water, a delayed onset of the rains means dry wells and stinging water shortages.
On the other hand, abundant rainfall also means their social and economic infrastructure, especially the roads, take a massive battering.
Residents of suburbs such as Southlea Park, Ushewokunze, Eastview, Damafalls and others which began sprouting at the turn of the millennium, have to contend with a tale of two untenable extremes.
And they are struggling to coexist with these paradoxes.
Heavy downpours that have pounded the capital in recent weeks have already imposed a massive toll on the road network in these embryonic suburbs, most of which have gravel roads.
Overnight, the roads across most of these suburbs became impassable.
“Our vehicles are getting damaged with each passing day because of the gullies and ponds that have emerged on the roads,” said a Southlea Park resident, Tendai Shamita.
Boysen Sasa, who resides in the same neighbourhood, was effusive in expressing his anger.
“Harare South, in Southlea Park the road is in a dire state after incessant rains. Whose door should we knock?” he said.
At the same time, however, the rains have also replenished the communities’ underground water sources, becoming a cause for “celebration”.
Sasa and Shamita’s predicament extends to thousands of families in other such settlements.
For years, developers in these suburbs have neglected installing proper sewer and water reticulation systems, paving roads and developing other social amenities.
When these suburbs started emerging, most did not have approved development plans, resulting in disorderly settlement and rampant land disputes.
The genesis
These settlements were developed on land that was either designated as greenbelts or for future expansion of the capital city.
Experts trace the emergence of these new settlements to around the year 2000 when the Government embarked on the Fast Track Land Reform Programme.
They emerged amid scenes of animated nationalism and agitation for land, itself a harbinger for a testing birth and eventual growth.
Upon witnessing their compatriots successfully taking over land from the erstwhile white owners in mostly rural areas, land hungry urban dwellers could not resist the temptation to join in the movement.
When they invaded a few farms dotted on the peripheries of Harare, there was no longterm plan for the development of residential settlements.
It was during that period that a crop of streetwise operators with some connections high up, saw a window of opportunity before taking advantage of the situation and started parcelling out the land to home seekers for a fee.
Riding on the wave of national pride that came with black indigenous people reclaiming their land, it was easy for this early crop of land barons to take advantage of desperate and land hungry urbanites.
Years later, as Harare’s population continued to grow on account of rapid rural-urban migration precipitated by the economic challenges that beset the country during that period, the need for the development of new residential suburbs was palpable.
As a result, many made a beeline to these settlements where land barons were on hand to provide them with affordable land to develop their own properties.
Experts argue that the expansion of these new settlements was to accelerate after the year 2006 when authorities had embarked on Operation Murambatsvina.
The clean-up exercise witnessed the demolition of illegal housing structures throughout the country, leaving many urban dwellers
without abode.
This operation created a massive deluge of urbanites desperate for housing, who were all welcomed to the developing suburbs mostly via housing cooperatives.
The cooperatives recorded brisk business, with some selling residential land for as little as US$1 for a square metre.
In an effort to arrest the lawlessness that had become rampant in these settlements, the Government in 2006 gazetted the compulsory acquisition of 19 farms around Harare for urban expansion.
The then Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement Didymus Mutasa announced in a Government Gazette the acquisition of Zimbabwe Tobacco Association’s Odar Farm (606 hectares) and the four farms of Crest Breeders International measuring in total of 230 hectares among others.
The land was offered to different consortia of dozens of companies for housing expansion and for the benefit of the companies’ employees.
However, subsequent fights between the consortiums and endless court battles over ownership of the subdivisions threw the entire process into disarray.
This gave an opportunity to land barons to invade and parcel out the land while the companies were fighting endless court battles.
A Commission of Inquiry appointed by President Mnangagwa in 2018, which was led by former High Court Judge Justice Tendai Uchena, concluded that State land worth over US$3 billion was illegally sold off to home seekers by land barons since 2005.
The commission’s report revealed that politically connected individuals, land barons, property developers, housing cooperatives illegally sold State land, while recommending the prosecution of 431 cases of suspected corruption related to land deals.
Justice Uchena’s commission also found that Harare was the most affected by the land grab madness led by the land barons.
Ballooning
Harare’s housing waiting list has continued to balloon.
Data from council shows that there are more than 200 000 applicants on its housing waiting list.
This has left home seekers at the mercy of unscrupulous land barons who continue to sell unserviced land.
Clampdown
Official data shows that up to 85 percent of housing cooperatives and property developers that sold land to home seekers failed to service the settlements.
On its part, the Government says before it can intervene, the land barons behind the mess must face the music.
Harare Secretary for Provincial Development and Devolution Mr Tafadzwa Muguti said developers of the settlements should be responsible for the provision of basic services and roads in the areas.
“When cooperatives and developers were given land to develop, the understanding was that they would put roads, sewer, poles, and water,” he said.
“The majority I can say, close to 85 percent did not do that.
“When they sold the stands, that money was supposed to be used to develop the area.
“After some time, beneficiaries of those schemes have reached a point of amnesia where they now feel it is the Government’s responsibility, yet they paid for a service which was never delivered.”
He said those who were duped by cooperatives should seek legal recourse.
“If you got your land from a property developer then it is not the Government’s mandate to develop the area, it should be the developer.
Regularisation
The Government has sought to initiate the regularisation of the settlements into proper urban areas.
The Zimbabwe National Geospatial and Space Agency (ZINGSA) has been roped in to conduct geospatial mapping of the sprouting settlements.
Through the exercise, authorities will develop proper masterplans which will be used to inform the redevelopment of the settlements.
ZINGSA acting director Mr Painos Gweme said the mapping exercise was ongoing.
“What we are doing is providing data for decision makers to allow for evidence-based approaches,” he said.
“We are taking drone images and integrating them with the layout plans that are already there with the Department of Spatial Planning in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.
“We will also compare the drone images to the General Plan held by the Surveyor-General.”
He said juxtaposition of the current plans and ZINGSA’s drone images will allow the authorities in charge of regularisation to see exactly which structures are in the wrong place.
“So far, we have done Caledonia, Hopley, Saturday Retreat.
“We are now moving to Eyecourt, parts of Waterfalls and surrounding settlements.
“During the process, we were mapping around 3 000 hectares in three days, depending on the weather conditions and the drones.
“Now that we have new drones, Delta Quad Pro models, which cover 2 000 hectares with each flight, we can map a whole settlement in one day and we would need about six days to process the data,” said Mr Gweme.
Separately, Mr Muguti said authorities will pursue regularisation and prosecution of land barons.
“We need to revisit the entire planning and bring those houses into the formal structure,”
said Mr Muguti.
Pay up!
Meanwhile, the Harare City Council said residents in these suburbs must pay for the regularisation.
Council has since resolved to levy fees running up to US$10 000 in order for the local authority to regularise one’s property.
Acting Harare spokesperson Mr Innocent Ruwende said the city fathers want the homeowners to pay up for the regularisation.
The Sunday Mail could not establish whether this was a parallel regularisation programme that is different from the one being undertaken by central Government.
“A recent council meeting resolved that homeowners in new settlements will have to pay for services,” he said.
“Those in low density areas are expected to pay US$10 000, medium density US$6 000 and high density, US$2 000.
“The regularisation will however be limited to houses built on land designated for housing, those built on wetlands or recreational facilities, will not be considered.”
A rethink
Town Planning Expert Dr Percy Toriro said authorities need to rethink their strategies for the development of new settlements.
“Parallel development is an exception to how proper settlements develop,” said Dr Toriro.
“The rule of the thumb is that infrastructure should precede superstructures.
“Once superstructures are built, it is hard to coordinate for services like running water, sewer systems and electricity.”
He said the problems created by land barons who lied to thousands of home seekers will be hard to solve, but can be avoided in the future.
“When people acquire land, they can fund their own infrastructure before they occupy the land.
“Councils have provisions which allow land owners to fund the installation of their infrastructure, I think when it comes to privately developed land that can be a more immediate solution,” said Dr Toriro.
“We have a precedent of successful projects where people funded their own infrastructure.”
He said in the past, the City of Harare would offer land to a small group of prospective homeowners who would slowly pay for development of infrastructure until the areas were ready for occupation.
“It has happened before and it can happen again,” he added.
The Regional, Town and Country Planning Act (Chapter 29.12) provides that development of basic infrastructure should precede occupation for human settlement.