The City of Mutare has warned that houses and other structures built without the required approvals will be demolished, joining a growing campaign by Zimbabwean urban authorities to clear illegal settlements and land developments.
Mutare Town Clerk Blessing Chafesuka said the council does not move straight to demolition. Property owners are first served with notices and warnings, followed by prohibition orders and engagement with the people building on the land. If construction continues, the matter is taken to court and a demolition order is sought.
Once that order is granted, however, the council will enforce it even if the property owner has invested years of work and substantial sums of money in the building.
“As the City of Mutare, we give notices and warnings. We issue prohibition orders whenever we notice that there is an illegal settlement or development taking place within the city. We engage the people concerned, but in the majority of cases, these people appear to have sources of power from elsewhere and defy our orders and other lawful instructions. At the end of the day, we have to take legal action through the court and eventually obtain demolition orders,” said Mr Chafesuka.
His warning was delivered during a panel discussion at the Public Service Retirement Conference, amid growing public concern over why buildings are allowed to rise for years before local authorities move in with bulldozers.
Residents have questioned why councils do not stop construction at the beginning, when only foundations or a few walls have been built, instead of waiting until families have completed houses and moved in. The delay has left some homeowners facing the destruction of their biggest financial investment, while councils insist that developers often use prolonged court battles to buy time and continue building.
Mr Chafesuka said some cases remain before the courts for between five and 10 years. During that period, people who have already received prohibition orders continue with construction, leaving councils to deal with much larger and more expensive structures when the cases are finally concluded.
“Usually, when you take the matter to court, the same culprits challenge the matter and the case then drags on for five or 10 years. Meanwhile, the culprit will continue with illegal development, and by the time the demolition order is finally authorised by the court, the property would have been developed extensively,” he said.
He added: “That order is issued by a competent court of law. By then, you may have invested substantial funds, but at the end of the day, we will demolish.”
The Mutare position places the responsibility for avoiding demolition on both the council and the person buying or developing the property. Emma Mandiziba, the city’s Director of Housing and Community Services, said prospective buyers must investigate land before paying for it and must not rely solely on promises from sellers, housing cooperatives or middlemen.
“The obligation is not really on the council to make sure you are protected from demolitions. The responsibility also lies with you to conduct due diligence before acquiring any property,” she said.
For home seekers, the warning comes down to three basic conditions. First, a buyer must establish who owns the land and whether the person or organisation selling it has the legal authority to dispose of it. Secondly, the buyer must confirm that the local authority has approved the development and that the necessary plans are in place. Thirdly, construction must proceed through the council’s inspection system, with the stages of building approved before the property is occupied.
“Due diligence is very important when you want to acquire property. Establish ownership and know who owns the land you are about to buy,” Ms Mandiziba said.
Private developers must also show that they have received all the necessary approvals from the local authority before buyers commit their money. A receipt, an informal allocation letter or a promise that the area will eventually be incorporated into the city does not replace council approval.
“We have seen a proliferation of urban development, and with it has come a lot of fraudsters. People are building at the boundaries of cities, hoping that at some point those settlements will be incorporated into the city,” said Ms Mandiziba.
The same report said more than 100 illegal settlements were facing demolition, while thousands of other stands were being considered for regularisation. Since July 2023, a Regularisation Task Force has visited 101 settlements containing 22,255 stands. Ninety-three settlements had been regularised, allowing the council to begin billing residents for rates and services.
That process does not cover every settlement. The council has ruled out regularisation for wetlands, schools, recreational areas, low-density invasions and new invasions created after 24 September 2023. It has also warned that housing cooperatives cannot be used as a front for illegal land allocations in affluent suburbs.
Kuwadzana Paddocks is among the areas where 21 housing cooperatives face demolition after court orders were granted. In Budiriro, some cooperatives are accused of building on wetlands and land reserved for schools. In Greendale, construction on 45 stands had continued for about eight years, while 291 stands linked to two cooperatives in Crowborough were reported to be illegally occupied.
Harare’s demolition campaign has already left families homeless. In November 2024, graders moved into Ridgeview and Belvedere, where dozens of households saw their homes pulled down. The city said some residents had built using fake papers and that illegal structures previously destroyed had been rebuilt after people returned to the sites.
Harare planning director Samuel Nyabeza said the city would intensify the operation and pursue the people who sold the land.
“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. A settlement has to be planned with all amenities in place before people start building,” he said.
“You cannot build a house without council-approved plans; you cannot build where there are no sewer and water facilities. We urge residents to check with the City of Harare before buying land. Even when building a structure, every stage should have council approvals.”
The first condition for a homeowner seeking protection is therefore clear: the stand must have been sold by a party with lawful authority to sell it. A cooperative is not the same as the City of Harare. An offer letter issued by a cooperative is not automatically a council-issued cession, and a receipt bearing stamps and signatures does not by itself establish ownership.
Some documents used in disputed land transactions have been described as scanned or forged offer letters, agreements of sale and title deeds. Suspected forgeries have been referred to the police, while the council has warned that structures built on land acquired through such documents will be removed.
The second condition is the location and approved use of the land. A house must not stand on a wetland, road reserve, school site, clinic site, recreational area, water or sewer corridor, airport expansion zone or other land reserved for public infrastructure. The appearance of a developed neighbourhood does not change the purpose assigned to the land in an approved plan.
The third condition is the strength of the property file. The owner must be able to produce approved plans and documents that connect the property to the council and the official land-registration system. Those records may include an approved layout plan, an approved building plan, a council-issued cession or deed of transfer, proof that rates are up to date and a surveyor-general’s diagram registered against the property.
Residents have been advised to visit their council district office before buying a stand or extending a building. They should request written confirmation that the stand appears in council records, that the seller is entitled to dispose of it and that no demolition or eviction order is pending. The approved layout should be compared with the land on the ground, because a seller may offer a plot that does not exist in the official plan.
Buyers should also conduct an independent search through a conveyancer and check the deeds registry where applicable. No deposit should be paid before the ownership trail and planning status have been examined. A verbal assurance that paperwork is “in process” offers no protection when the council identifies a structure as illegal.