The residents who phoned The Standard last week claimed that Munyaradzi Kereke, an advisor to central bank governor Gideon Gono, was extending his clinic without the approval of the City of Harare.
They said this was after he allegedly bought a housing stand adjacent to his clinic.
“This man is buying properties around here, extending the clinic without council approval,” fumed one resident.
“At the moment, his workers are busy building a huge extension without going through the normal procedures.”
Another resident claimed that his workers were making a lot of noise during the construction.
“We wonder why he chose this area when there are other areas that do not cause discomfort to other people.
“There are lots of vast tracks of land elsewhere in the country,” he said.
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But Kereke last week denied that he was extending his clinic.
“What is true is that a perimeter wall, licenced by the city council, is under construction,” Kereke said.
“However, the purported concern of residents you mentioned is utterly incomprehensible, if not silly.”
Efforts to get a comment from Harare City Council spokesperson Leslie Gwindi were fruitless.
But plans availed to The Standard last week indicated that the project was approved by the City of Harare’s architect’s division — building inspectorate section on June 6 2010.
The plan also bears the city’s dimensions of electricity (east) district stamp dated January 5 2011.
Kereke angered his neighbours two years ago when he successfully applied for change of land use to convert a house into a 24-hour emergency health centre in the leafy Harare suburb.
Then some residents said the septic tank at the property would not be able to contain waste from the increased human population and would pollute neighbours’ boreholes.
But Kereke countered that the property would be connected to the main sewer line servicing Arundel Office Park.
Council, however, approved the conversion of the property into a medical centre effectively overriding resistance towards the project, being constructed under Rock Foundation Family Trust.
The centre has ambulance services, a pharmacy, fully-fledged medical laboratories, CT-scan and ultrasound services, and eye, dental and other medical advisory facilities.
