CHRA Demands Urgent Council Meeting Over Illegal Vainona Construction Scandal

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) is demanding that the Harare City Council urgently convene a Special Council Meeting to address the controversial approval of a double-storey building erected on illegal land in Vainona — a decision that has triggered widespread outrage and renewed calls for accountability within the city’s planning division.

This fresh scandal emerges amid a troubling pattern of corruption and mismanagement at Town House, where the local authority has come under fire for greenlighting developments on wetlands and other ecologically sensitive areas, often in apparent defiance of planning laws and environmental regulations.

In a statement, CHRA accused the city’s officials of gross incompetence and called for the immediate formation of an Investigation Committee, empowered under Section 100(1)(a) of the Urban Councils Act, to get to the bottom of what it suspects may be yet another case of underhand dealings.

“The Combined Harare Residents Association is urgently calling for the Harare City Council to conduct a Special Council Meeting to constitute an Investigation Committee to interrogate the ‘error’ that was made in approving the construction of a double-storey building by the local authority on an illegal piece of land in Vainona,” read part of the CHRA statement.

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“We affirm that residents and ratepayers of Harare cannot bear the consequences and cost of this gross incompetence and maladministration within the City of Harare planning division without disciplinary measures being taken.”

CHRA said the Vainona case echoes a disturbing trend across the capital, where construction projects have been sanctioned in violation of urban planning laws particularly on land gazetted as protected by the government.

The association has called on the council to report the matter to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and to commence disciplinary proceedings against any officials found complicit.

“Turning a blind eye on this matter will make elected representatives (councillors) accomplices,” CHRA warned, adding that under Section 274(2) of the Constitution, local authorities are run by elected councils and it is those councillors who must now take the lead in restoring public confidence.

The association implored the council to take three immediate steps: hold a Special Council Meeting, initiate an internal investigation, and formally engage ZACC.