In a letter
addressed to Harare mayor Jacob Mafume, Local Government and Public Works
minister Daniel Garwe said council should compensate Pinnacle Property Holdings
with council land.
He cited
several confrontations between Town House and Pinnacle Property Holdings while
responding to Mafume’s letter dated May 23 this year.
Garwe
referenced earlier minutes dated December 17, 2024, and May 8 this year.
“As you are
aware and highlighted in the above postcode in the previous discussion, the
Minister of Local Government and Public Works signed a compensation agreement
with Pinnacle Holdings for his land in Harare South and Warren Park,” the
minister said.
Mafume said the
directive must be followed.
“The
relationship of Pinnacle Property Holdings and this council is not new. At some
point, we had an agreement in the memorandum of understatement signed with
Pinnacle, ourselves, the Local Government minister and Pinnacle over Stone
Ridge Properties. The Stone Ridge Properties, as we know, part of them belong
to Pinnacle and they have been occupied.
“Pinnacle has
been engaged in legal disputes between us, the government and the Supreme
Court, which could lead, maybe, to the eviction of people at that place if the
interpretation of the law is taken to the letter. But the route that has been
taken by Pinnacle is to negotiate with council. The first attempt at our
negotiation was abortive.
"Among the
properties identified for compensation by claimants, there are properties that
are owned by the City of Harare. Below is the list of properties.”
Councillor
Denford Ngadziore said the land issue must be dealt according to procedure.
“If we are to
do this land transfer, we cannot sit as council and agree to things without
following the right path; we love to stick to the Constitution, not just
agree,” he said.
“We are not
going to hand over land without doing the land evaluation process, because what
if we give someone property that is not equivalent to the space of his land?”
Meanwhile,
addressing a full council meeting yesterday, Mafume said Harare would
co-operate with the Local Government ministry to the benefit of residents in
the capital.
“As Harare City
Council, we will co-operate with the government for the benefit of the
residents and we have had problems with refuse collection for a long time in
Harare,” he said.
“As council, we
have no capacity for refuse collection, but our government has said it will
help us, and we are happy.”
Mafume
applauded the government for completing the Trababalas Interchange, formerly
known as the Mbudzi Roundabout.
He said the
government would construct 10 other interchanges in the capital. Newsday
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