Over 100,000 Illegal Homes In Harare Aren't Paying Bills - Mafume
Harare Mayor, Councillor Jacob Mafume, revealed that owners of over 100,000 illegally built houses in the capital are not paying rates to the city council.
In response to a prominent user on X (formerly Twitter) commenting on a Sunday Mail story about the City of Harare’s plan to demolish 5,000 illegally constructed houses, Mafume clarified that the number of illegal houses is actually much higher.
He added that these homes were built on land originally designated for schools, clinics, and sorting facilities.
Mafume also disclosed that the Harare City Council had suspended the demolitions due to the elections and the SADC summit. He wrote on X:
These are built on schools, clinics, open spaces & sports grounds. We stopped because of elections and the SADC. Children are forced to move 8 km to school. Clinics are non-existent. Houses are flooding. It has to be corrected…
The irregular settlements number over 100000 houses in and around Harare.
The illegal houses will soon outnumber the legal rate-paying houses of Harare. The 322000 households we bill foot the bill for everyone!
ZANU PF land barons have been implicated in the syndicates that has been illegally parcelling out land in the City. Said Mafume:
They do not own the land. They seek no approval from anyone from start to finish. They just build at will and with no due care and regard.
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