The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere
As calls for Harare City Council to end house demolitions get louder, the metropolitan authorities have taken a step to resolve the matter by regularising informal settlements.And having relied on demolitions to deal with victims of illegal stands allocation, council appears to be taking a new and welcome direction this time.The news come as huge relief to all home-seekers who had been misled by bogus land developers and co-operatives into building houses on illegal sites around Harare thereby risking demolitions.
Information provided by council shows that 3 330 households have already been regularised while more than 10 000 could be relocated.
However, the seemingly sweet news have raised some doubts and anxiety among those who are supposed to benefit from the initiative.
Would-be beneficiaries say the municipality is overlooking a number of issues in their requirements for one to have their stands and housing plans be regularised.
Council spokesperson, Michael Chideme, said those who want to be regularised should pay an amount of $1 500 not more than three months after receiving their offer letters and this has not gone down well with people who have already paid large sums of money to co-operatives.
“Each household is expected to pay the amount $1 500 within three months from the date of the allocation and failure to do so, council will withdraw the offer letter and the stand within seven days written notice to remedy the breach,” he said.
“Each household is expected to pay the intrinsic land value as determined by the city value and estates manager within three months from the date of allocation. The intrinsic land value should be paid at the relevant district office.”
This has irked beneficiaries who view the fee as exorbitant.
They are also angered by the prospect of paying another large sum of money despite having already paid to co-operatives. The home-seekers have also raised concerns of how they will be compensated the money they paid to co-operatives in the event that they fail to pay the regularisation fee within the stipulated time.
With some having paid amounts in excess of $5 000 to co-operatives, making another payment appears to be a tall order.
The majority of the people are low-income earners.
“To begin with, when we started paying for the stands to the co-operative there was no way some of us could have known that they were illegal because they had proof and all the stamps,” said one of the disgruntled home seekers in Kuwadzana 5.
“The authorities know that we were cheated, they know who cheated us so why should they come to us and not the co-operatives. Anyway, even if we wanted to pay, the $1 500 fee is just too much, and to pay it within three months makes it even more difficult.”
Some people in the areas earmarked for regularisation professed total ignorance of how the whole process works and are afraid of falling victim to more scams.
Contacted to comment, the council spokesperson explained the fee and how the regularisation process is supposed to go.
“The payment of regularisation fees is a punitive stance by council to discourage illegal construction of buildings,” he said. “It is not an everyday thing. We expect all residents to be law abiding. The penalty is a once-off payment and the amount is not too high as alleged. A penalty is supposed to be punitive to discourage similar offences in future.”
Mr Chideme said those who fail to pay will be removed from the stands. “If they totally fail to pay, the stands will remain illegal and subject to being removed but if someone has started payment and fails midway council will repossess the stands and refund whatever amount was paid less 50 percent administration fees,” he said.
Mr Chideme also said a total of 3 330 households who were illegally settled on sites zoned as residential are being regularised and 10 000 settlers on wet lands and institutional land are going to be relocated to identified, planned and suitable residential sites.
Urban Development Cooperation (Udcorp) general manager, Mr Bright Mudzova, whose organisation is partnering council in regularising some of the areas said they were satisfied with the process so far.
“We are happy with the way we have been working with the Harare City Council so far. Currently we are working with them in Harare South, Harare North and Caledonia,” said Mr Mudzova. “The $1 500 charges do not affect where we are currently working on developing stands (mentioned above). These charges haven’t been applied where we, as Udcorp, are servicing land, maybe council will also apply these charges but they have not informed us yet.
“The issue of dealing with individuals and not co-operatives is an issue that is determined by council using their autonomy, we are not working with them on this issue. Our mandate is clear, we do town planning, tittle deeds and infrastructural development.”
Expert and lecturer in the Department of Rural and Urban Planning at University of Zimbabwe, Mr Nyasha Takawira Mutsindikwa, contends that if due procedure is not taken, the regularisation procedure could create problems.
He said some essential urban development tenets could be by-passed during the process. “Basically the procedure requires that a pre-feasibility study be conducted by the relevant municipality that assesses the age and history of the settlement,” he said.
“The ownership status of the land, the geo-technical, environmental suitability of the area for the upgrading of the settlement and the estimated number of households within the settlement are some of the things to consider. These processes initiate a preliminary work plan for the project.
“Part of the consideration is an assessment of whether any households need to be relocated based on an analysis of the suitability of the settlement for upgrading or regularisation guided by the various pieces of town planning legislation.”
Mr Mutsindikwa also warned that the regularisation process could be impeded by the country’s laws and regulations.
“Zoning laws or regulations may act as a stumbling block in an attempt to regularise some of these illegal settlements,” he said.
“Affordability of regularisation processes can also be a challenge since most of the people in these settlements are poor. Also, the livelihoods of the households may be disturbed as a result of regularisation and upgrading processes.”
Experts also concur that regularisation may face resistance from some sectors of the communities due to socio-economic and political forces. More so, some of the settlements may have negative environmental effects especially those on wetlands and river banks.
While there are some disgruntlements over the exercise, the general consensus is that instead of demolitions, council is doing good service by trying to regularise the informal settlements.
It, however, remains to be seen if council can pull it off given the resources and the legalities required to complete such a vast exercise. Observers also recommend that the regularisation fee be revised as many cannot afford it.
They say it should be considered that there are people who have already paid large amounts and should not lose their stands by failing to pay the regularisation fee.
Zimbabwe is not the only country facing the growth of informal settlements and the country could take lessons from countries which have regularised such as Brazil. Brazil used what is called tenure policies to regularise areas such as Porto Alegre and Recife.
