What kind of government, sets up its people for extortion by dubious business people? What kind of government allows its authority to be used to manoeuvre people into positions where they are mercilessly milked of their money to enrich millionaires
The Southlea saga is one of the saddest indictments of abuse of government authority and processes by an individual.
Odar Farm was acquired BY GOVERNMENT over a decade ago, and was allocated to various housing cooperatives. Some of these housing cooperatives involved the employees of parastatals like ZESA. One of them involved prominent Zanu-PF central committee member, Mai Manyonda and her daughter.
That the farm was acquired by government and allocated to housing cooperatives is beyond question. What is unclear, is what happened after that.
At some point the government was taken to court by Philip Chiyangwa. Mind you the farm was not acquired from him in the first place. How the farm ended up his property is an area covered in thick fog.
He took the government to court and lost the case at the High Court. The story we are now hearing, is that Chiyangwa appealed to the Supreme Court and then reached an out of court settlement with the government.
How on this beautiful earth of ours, could the government enter into an out of court settlement without involving the parties it had allocated the farm to. Surely it should have known that they stood to suffer massive prejudice. Surely the government should have known it was handing the people over to Chiyangwa for extortion purposes.
Chiyangwa is reported to be demanding $150 'registration fee' after which it will be at his liberty to decide what price he will charge the occupants for the stands. Mungati angarega kufara segudo raona danga remarize pasi pebwe?.
Another thing, that is murkier than Mukuvisi waters, is exactly who in government authorised the so called out of court settlement. Was it local housing minister Ignatius Chombo? Was it a cabinet sitting? Was it His Excellency the President himself?
Failure by the government to involve the people it had allocated the land to means the out of court settlement could not have been in good faith. Secrecy about the government's logic and reasoning in so belatedly entering into an out of court settlement, does not suggest it was a decision taken in good faith. Decisions taken in bad faith are not valid at law.
What is further puzzling is that to any thinking person, this clearly civil dispute caused by the government's flip-flopping on what should be a straightforward issue, is suddenly being treated as criminal fraud by police. If that is the case why did they not start by arresting the minister who allocated the area to the housing cooperatives in the first place? Surely he is a co-conspirator in all the developments up to now.
This clearly looks like the police being used by powerful entities to harass the hapless elected representatives of the housing cooperatives involved.
Still the question needs to be answered, why did the government chicken out at the last minute? Why did the government decide to throw live chickens into shark infested waters? Surely they should have known the feeding frenzy to follow, would cause a massive disturbance.
The best way forward forward for the housing cooperatives involved is to approach the courts and ask for the so called out of court settlement to be set aside because clearly it was done in bad faith.
They should further seek that Southlea be declared part of Harare metropolitan area so that its affairs fall under the authority of the city council. They should further seek that demarcated stands should be allocated to persons who have been paying for their servicing under the housing cooperative schemes.
Lastly they should seek a cease and desist order against any parties that have been harassing them such as Mr Chiyangwa.
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