HCC councillor Mujajati opens lid on collusion with land barons through illegal regularisation
It was revealed that the city council uses council resolutions to regularize illegal land takeover in the city for the past years.
Harare – A Harare city councillor, George Mujajati on Tuesday said city management and councillors are driving and benefiting from regularizing land invasions that involve land barons.
Mujajati, the councillor for Ward 28 in Glen Norah said the previous council of 2018 to 2023 was behind council resolutions that regularized illegal takeover of council land by land barons resulting in council land going into the pockets of individuals.
“If you were going to investigate the regularisation you will find a lot of dirt coming out,” Mujajati said at a commission of inquiry that was appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to investigate the operations of Harare City Council (HCC).
“There are a lot of dirty issues in the so called regularization.”
Mujajati appeared for a second time at the five member commission chaired retired Justice Maphios Cheda.
Mujajati said he became a councillor in August 2024 and found out that illegal land invaders, councillors and officials were working in cahoots to disenfranchise the city by regularizing illegal land grabs.
“The new councillors were unhappy about this regularizing,” Mujajati said.
“They exploit homelessness, you find people are looking for stands and they pay. Councillors and officials (city council managers) they would demand financial payment and a stand in some cases,” he said.
“When a person is homeless and vulnerable when they see councillors involved they end up paying and believing,” Mujajati added.
“People are being exploited, some have been sold the same stand in double allocation .”
The chaotic land invasions has seen it courts inundated ,with cases of people fighting in courts when a stand is allocated to two or three people.
The city council uses council resolutions, Mujajati said, to regularize illegal land takeover in the city for the past years.
In a recent case,a council resolution was passed to regularize 144 sites where illegal council land takeover was done.
Shockingly,In Mujajati said some of the sites that are being regularized are open spaces that are not occupied by anyone raising questions.
