FLAMBOYANT businessman Phillip Chiyangwa who is embroiled in a bitter wrangle with the Harare City Council over various pieces of land that he allegedly acquired in irregular deals yesterday said he planned to meet the mayor in a bid to mend relations with the local authority.

Chiyangwa said he planned to enlist council’s support to evict squatters in one of the pieces of land that he owns at an area known as Kumbudzi along the Harare-Masvingo highway.
Early this year a special investigations committee set up by council recommended that Chiyangwa must be prosecuted for allegedly acquiring council land illegally.

The former Zanu PF provincial chairman hit back by causing the arrest of the mayor Muchadeyi Masunda and several councillors on criminal defamation charges.

He is also suing council for US$900 million after the report detailing the alleged land scam was leaked to the media.
But a conciliatory Chiyangwa told the annual general meeting (AGM) of the Zimbabwe National Council of Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) that his fight with council would soon come to an end.

“The mayor is my brother, so the fight between us will eventually come to an end,” he said.
“Right now there are some people who are residing illegally on one of my premises near the Kumbudzi roundabout and they call their enterprise Nyarungu.

“I have court orders in my possession to evict the illegal tenants there because you just can’t lift up the (national) flag and  declare yourself the owner of somebody else’s property.”

Ironically, council has been raiding the goat traders operating in the area but it could not be immediately ascertained if the blitz was linked to Chiyangwa’s claims.

Masunda who also addressed the AGM steered clear of the council’s fight with the businessman.

Instead he dwelt on several challenges facing the city and urged youths to be active in tackling them.
He also encouraged youths to be involved in income generating projects that can also benefit the city.

There are reports that some MDC-T councilors who were involved in the land audit that also implicated several senior Zanu PF officials are no longer interested in pursuing the case fearing that they would be dismissed from their posts by the Minister of Local Government and Urban Development Ignatius Chombo.

Chombo has already suspended several MDC-T councilors on allegations of corruption but the party says suspensions were politically motivated.

BY KUDZAI CHIMHANGWA

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