BY CHARLES LAITON
The High Court has ordered a top Harare hotel to vacate its premises by Thursday after its owners conceded that they were occupying the property illegally.
The dispute over the ownership of Stand 761 in the plush Glen Lorne suburb between Pandari Hotel and Eelco Alexis Walraven started in 2016.
Walraven argued that he had not authorised the hotel to set up shop on the property.
The case had been pending in court for some time before Justice Owen Tagu made a ruling on June 27, 2019 in favour of Walraven.
In his evidence, Walraven submitted that Pandari Hotel and its director Sunday Chifamba had failed to prove that they occupied the premises legally.
“The defendants (Chifamba and Pandari Hotel) neither have title to the property, nor any agreement with the owners in terms of which any right of occupation has been conferred upon them,” Walraven submitted.
“The plaintiff has been prejudiced as a result of the unlawful occupation of its property and defendants have refused to restore possession and occupation to the plaintiff.”
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Justice Tagu issued an order by consent following admissions by Chifamba and the hotel that they had been occupying the premises illegally.
“The defendants and all those claiming occupation through them shall vacate Stand 761 Glen Lorne Township of Lot 41 of Glen Lorne, commonly known as 8 Woodbridge Close, Glen Lorne, Harare, on or before July 25, 2019, failure of which the sheriff of the High Court is hereby directed to cause their eviction by 1600 hours on July 31, 2019,” read part of the judgement.
Chifamba and the hotel were ordered to pay the cost of the suit.
The hotel has 71 accommodation rooms and nine conference rooms with a capacity to accommodate 1 000 people. It was upgraded from a lodge to a hotel recently after a multi-million dollar expansion programme.
