BY LORRAINE NDEBELE
The ongoing land dispute in Budiriro between land developer Fifty Angels Company and one Hebert Senda, popularly known as Madzibaba Enock, has reached a boiling point with Senda now accused of dropping President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s name, the Zimbabwe Independent has learnt.
The land under dispute is at number 2254, which forms the remainder of Gleneagles Farm in Budiriro 4. Harare City Council recently got a provisional court order evicting Senda and Johane Masowe members from the land.
However, Senda and the Johane Masowe members have refused to budge. Instead, they have allegedly threatened law enforcement officers with violence. The matter has since been brought before Harare Provincial minister Oliver Chidawu. He confirmed receiving the report.
“Those are allegations that we still have to investigate,” Chidawu said.
A source close to the developments said: “Senda has on various occasions claimed to have the backing of President Mnangagwa. This has seen him defying a number of court orders and various efforts by the City Council to carry out surveys on the land”.
Efforts to get a comment from Senda were fruitless as his mobile phone went unanswered and he did not respond to questions sent to him via WhatsApp. On December 2, 2021, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Harare Province attended to a land dispute case where Senda was claiming to be the rightful owner of the piece of land in Budiriro, which Fifty Angels Company was also saying was theirs. Also present were officials from the Budiriro District Office under Harare Municipality as well as the Ministry of Local Government and National Housing. The City of Harare department of works had written to ZRP requesting protection to allow them to carry out a title survey on the disputed Budiriro land since the Johane Masowe members were allegedly violently attacking the surveyors.
“The surveyors have been failing to undertake the survey instruction on two occasions (15-19/11/21 and 26-27/11/21) because of violent disturbances by members of the Johane Masowe sect who are currently occupying the site,” read the letter by the City Council to ZRP dated December 15, 2021. High Court Judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero issued a provisional order on April 06, 2022, granting the City of Harare a final interdict barring Johane Masowe Echishanu housing co-operative and all those claiming through them, from accessing stand 18759 Budiriro 4 and interfering in any manner with the City of Harare’s operations on the stand, which appears on the plan.
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This plan was approved by the Acting Chief Director of Spatial Planning and development on August 3, 2021. The High Court also ordered Johane Masowe Echishanu Housing Co-operative, Herbert Senda, and five others to remove their illegal structures and failure of which City of Harare officials would be authorised to demolish the structures. The respondents were also banned from selling the stand in Budiriro 4 as it appears on plan number TP2F/WR/17/1 of the City of Harare.
