Harare’s Housing Crisis: Who REALLY Profits from the Demolitions and Land Baron Scams?

HARARE – The mechanical roar of front-end loaders has become a recurring soundtrack in the residential suburbs of Harare. For many families, it is the sound of a lifetime’s savings being reduced to twisted rebar and shattered brickwork in a matter of minutes. The urban landscape of Zimbabwe’s capital is increasingly defined by these scenes of destruction, where affluent villas in Belvedere and modest structures in Budiriro alike are levelled under the watchful eye of the municipal police.

While the City of Harare maintains that these demolitions are a necessary measure to restore urban planning and remove illegal settlements, a deeper investigation reveals a more sinister narrative. Behind the dust and the rubble lies a sophisticated network of “land barons,” corrupt municipal officials, and political actors who have turned the city’s housing shortage into a lucrative, if predatory, industry. This report unmasks the architects of this crisis and exposes the hidden financial trails that lead from the demolished homes to the pockets of the powerful.

The Human Cost of Displacement

For the residents of Hopley, the threat of demolition is a daily reality. In February 2026, close to 100 families were marked for displacement. Many of these individuals are among the poorest in the city, having moved to Hopley after being displaced by previous “clean-up” operations. The tragedy is that these citizens are often sold a dream of homeownership that quickly turns into a nightmare. They are told that the land is being “regularised” and that they should pay “subscriptions” to housing cooperatives. In reality, these cooperatives are often front organisations for land barons.

One resident, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution, shared their experience:

“We paid everything we had to the cooperative leaders. They showed us papers with council stamps. Now the council says those stamps are fake and they want to pull down our house. Where will my children sleep?”

In the mornings, the consequences of this failure are visible. Hundreds of children in these illegal settlements are forced to cross major roads like Chitungwiza Road to reach schools in established suburbs like Highfield or Glen View because the land meant for their own schools has been sold off by land barons.

The “Forge-Masters” of Belvedere

One of the most high-profile incidents occurred in November 2024, in the affluent Ridgeview area of Belvedere. Here, more than 20 luxury houses, some valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars, were reduced to ruins. The demolition of these “mansions” was not merely a matter of poor planning; it was the culmination of an elaborate forgery scheme that has since been dubbed the “Forge-Masters” scam.

At the centre of this operation were Lilian Chitanga, 52, and Spencer Mabeka, 45, operating under an entity called Brickstone Builders and Contractors Private Limited. Their strategy was as bold as it was fraudulent. In 2002, the Harare City Council had approved the subdivision of a portion of land in Belvedere into 52 residential stands under layout plan TP2F 2219/3. However, the plan remained dormant for two decades. Sensing an opportunity, Chitanga and Mabeka moved in during 2021.

They allegedly forged a distribution letter for the layout plan, backdating it to April 2021, and another offer letter for the land. Both documents carried the forged signatures of Nathan Magadzire, the Principal Director for Physical Planning in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works. To further cement their deception, they produced a third forged document, purportedly from Sibusiso Sithole of the Harare Council’s Department of Housing, offering Brickstone Builders 14.4 hectares of land.

Armed with these “official” documents, the duo sold 2,000-square-metre stands to over 45 unsuspecting buyers for prices ranging between US$25,000 and US$40,000. Many of these buyers, believing they were dealing with legitimate developers, invested further in drilling boreholes, erecting perimeter walls, and building three-bedroom homes. The total loss in property value for these residents is estimated at approximately US$1.5 million.

The Weaponisation of Urban Planning

The Belvedere case is not an isolated incident but a symptom of a systemic failure. Land barons have mastered the art of exploiting the city’s bureaucratic delays. Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume has frequently spoken out about the “addiction” to lawlessness that has gripped the city.

“A city is an artificial construct which relies on the enforcement of the law, and once people develop a habit of not enforcing the law, it becomes an addiction. It is an addiction worse than drug addiction,” Mafume stated during a recent briefing.

The Mayor’s frustration stems from the fact that the council currently holds 37 High Court orders for evictions and demolitions that have remained unenforced for years. This delay allows land barons to move onto a site, quickly erect small “cabins” that are immediately occupied, and then use the residents as human shields against legal action. By the time the council acts, the “cabins” have become permanent structures.

The scale of the problem is staggering. A leaked internal document titled “Report on Regularisation and Demolitions of Illegal Structures in Harare,” which surfaced in May 2025, revealed that approximately 22,000 housing stands and properties across 39 different areas are currently under scrutiny. The locations include high-density suburbs such as Kuwadzana, Mabvuku, Budiriro, and Mbare, as well as newer settlements like Hopley and Hatcliffe.

The Corruption Nexus: Officials and Barons

The question that continues to haunt the dispossessed is: how can such large-scale illegal developments occur in plain sight? The answer lies in the alleged intricate networks between land barons and corrupt officials.

A Commission of Inquiry into the financial matters of the City of Harare, appointed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in April 2024, has begun to peel back the layers of this corruption. Testimonies from the inquiry have exposed how some councillors have allegedly hijacked the “regularisation” process—a policy meant to bring illegal settlements into the formal planning system—to benefit themselves and their associates.

Edgar Dzehonye, a principal housing officer, testified that certain councillors had colluded with land barons to allocate residential stands under dubious “pay schemes” such as Svikiro and New Dawn. These schemes allowed illegal activities to flourish by bypassing official council channels and creating a parallel, shadow administration for land distribution.

The following table outlines the key players and their alleged roles in this crisis:

The Political Smokescreen

While the City Council and the Central Government often appear to be at loggerheads over demolitions, many observers believe this public friction is a convenient smokescreen. Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe has publicly opposed the demolitions, insisting that a “blanket ban” is in place.

“There are no demolitions that are going to take place. We gave them a blanket ban on demolitions,” Garwe said in a statement that seemed to contradict the reality on the ground.

However, Mayor Mafume argues that this political interference is exactly what allows the land barons to thrive. He points out that while the government bans demolitions, it does nothing to stop the illegal sales of land. This creates a cycle of displacement and despair where the state fails to protect its citizens from scammers but eventually punishes those same citizens for the scammers’ crimes.

A Demand for Accountability

As the Commission of Inquiry continues its work, there is a growing demand for greater transparency and accountability. The current anti-corruption measures appear to be insufficient to stop the flow of illicit funds. While individuals like Harry Muzondo of Odar Farm have faced fraud charges, the systemic failures that allow such individuals to operate remain largely unaddressed.

Samuel Nyabeze, the Harare Council’s Director of Planning, has vowed that the demolition programme will continue until order is restored. “We have to restore order in the city and we will not tolerate a situation where people just build houses without approvals and permission from council,” he said. “You cannot build a house without council-approved plans; you cannot build where there are no sewer and water facilities”.

However, for justice to be truly served, the focus must shift from the victims to the architects of the crisis. The state must move beyond simply demolishing homes and begin dismantling the networks of power that profit from this chaos.

Conclusion: Unmasking the Architects

The housing crisis in Harare is not merely a failure of urban planning; it is a meticulously orchestrated land grab by powerful, unseen forces. From the “Forge-Masters” of Belvedere to the corrupt councillors in the Town House, the beneficiaries of this crisis are those who weaponise the desperation of the people for personal enrichment.

Until there is a genuine political will to prosecute the high-ranking officials and land barons who facilitate these scams, the cycle of demolitions will continue. The dispossessed of Harare deserve more than just a regularisation of their misery; they deserve a housing system that is transparent, lawful, and free from the predatory grip of the powerful. The quest for justice for Harare’s homeless continues, and this report leaves no stone unturned in exposing the hidden financial trails that lead from the rubble to the pockets of the elite.

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