4 Dema village heads in court for selling land

Michael Mashiri

Four Dema village heads, who was in the habit of illegally displacing people in the area selling the residential stands to other people, have been remanded in custody.

Lewis Murisa, 64, Kenneth Kawora, 48, Rich Musona, 45 and Joshua Netsiva, 46, all of Dema, appeared before magistrate Munashe Chibanda at the Harare Magistrates’ Courts accused of contravening the regional town and planning act.

Manyame Rural District Council has a service centre named Murisa within its area of Jurisdiction, which comprises of Murisa Village, Kuora Village, Musona Village and Nechiwa Village. Prior to the acquisition and incorporation of the service centre into Manyame RDC, each village was headed by a village head.

The State, through prosecutor Rufaro Chonzi, alleges that in 2013, Murisa Service Centre was regularised for urban development after Manyame Rural District council planned the area and allocated residential, commercial, institutional and industrial stands to deserving beneficiaries.

It is alleged that some beneficiaries developed their properties after being allocated by the Council.

The acquisition, planning and incorporation of the service centre under Manyame Rural District Council did not go down well with the four accused persons.

It is against this background that from period from 2015 to 2023, the four pegged and parcelled out residential stands on open spaces and undesignated areas and them sold to homeseekers and took the money.

On some instances, they would legit beneficiaries and replaced them with their chosen people.

The offence came to light after there was an outcry on the affected areas when all open spaces and river banks were occupied by haphazardly built houses.

This led Manyame Rural District Council officials to visit the area and made a police report, leading to the arrest of the four.