There comes a point when administrative failure becomes something far more serious — an abuse of public power. The demolition of homes in St Martins by the City of Harare has crossed that line.
This is not simply a story about illegal structures, planning regulations or the enforcement of municipal by-laws. It is a story about people who trusted their local authority, paid for land, invested their life savings and built homes, only to wake up to the sound of bulldozers destroying what they had spent years creating.
And if the facts emerging from St Martins are correct, then the City of Harare has some very serious questions to answer.
The most disturbing question is painfully simple: How can a council sell land to citizens and later turn around and destroy the homes they build on that same land?
Reports indicate that the City of Harare sold residential stands in St Martins, including to some of its own employees.
In 2018, council reportedly sold 224 residential stands in St Martins, with home-seekers paying for the land.
New Ziana has separately reported that the council sold land in St Martins to dozens of residents, including its workers, while servicing of the housing project was reportedly under way.
If a municipal employee can legitimately acquire land from his or her employer, pay for it and proceed to develop it, what exactly is the explanation for the subsequent bulldozers?
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Was the council unaware of what it had sold?
Did one department sell what another department later deemed illegal?
Were payments accepted without proper allocation?
Were building plans approved and subsequently disowned?
Were council officials asleep when residents were investing their money?
Or, more troublingly, did somebody know exactly what was happening and choose to look the other way?
These are not academic questions. They go to the heart of accountability at Town House.
The City of Harare cannot have it both ways. It cannot behave like a legitimate seller when collecting money from desperate home-seekers and then behave like a stranger when those same citizens demand accountability.
If the land was improperly allocated, then those responsible for the improper allocation must be identified.
If money was collected unlawfully, the people who authorised or facilitated those transactions must answer.
If council records were manipulated, destroyed, concealed or ignored, those responsible must face investigation.
And if officials acted negligently or corruptly, disciplinary and criminal consequences must follow where the evidence supports them.
Heads must roll.
That is not a call for scapegoating. It is a call for accountability.
The council's own conduct makes the matter even more difficult to defend. NewsDay reported that residents claimed they had been paying council rates and that their paperwork was in order, while the newspaper's editorial correctly observed that council appeared to demolish structures before transparently establishing who was actually authorised to build.
That is governance upside down.
Verify first. Enforce second. Demolish last.
Instead, St Martins appears to have witnessed the reverse.
And the human consequences have been devastating.
Families have been left homeless. People have had their belongings removed to council offices. Some affected residents reportedly camped at the Harare City Council district offices in Sunningdale, demanding answers about why their homes were destroyed and what would happen to their investments.
This is not merely an inconvenience.
A house is not a pile of bricks.
For an ordinary Zimbabwean, a house represents years of sacrifice — salaries saved, loans repaid, livestock sold, small businesses sacrificed and family dreams postponed. It is security for children and dignity for parents.
To destroy such a home without first resolving the administrative dispute that created the problem is extraordinarily reckless.
It is also profoundly insensitive.
Council cannot simply say: produce your papers.
Which papers does council want residents to produce that council itself should already have?
The municipality is the custodian of its own housing records. It should know who bought the stands, who paid, who was allocated what, which plans were approved, which inspections were conducted and which officers authorised development.
As NewsDay noted, an integrated system should allow enforcement officers to verify a property's plans, inspections, payments and approvals before a demolition is undertaken.
Anything less creates fertile ground for corruption.
And this is precisely why St Martins must not be treated as an isolated planning dispute.
It should trigger a forensic investigation into the entire land transaction chain.
Who identified the land?
Who authorised its allocation?
Who sold it?
Who collected the money?
Who issued receipts?
Who approved development?
Who inspected the properties?
Who allowed infrastructure to proceed?
Who later declared the structures illegal?
Who authorised the demolitions?
And who stands to benefit from the land now that families have been removed?
These questions must be answered publicly.
There is already a disturbing history around land administration in St Martins. In 2015, council itself warned that bogus housing cooperatives were parcelling out municipal land in the area and acknowledged that influential and politically connected individuals could exploit land administration weaknesses. More recently, a St Martins housing cooperative challenged the City of Harare after council took years to communicate its position on land allocation, with members having been interviewed and payments demanded towards servicing.
This history makes it impossible to dismiss the latest controversy as merely residents refusing to obey planning regulations.
There is a systemic problem here.
And the political dimension cannot simply be wished away.
If, as reported and alleged, the demolitions proceeded despite recommendations from Zanu PF calling for a more measured approach, then the City of Harare's conduct becomes even more difficult to understand. Political affiliation should never determine whether the law is obeyed, but neither should a municipal authority ignore recommendations aimed at preventing unnecessary suffering and resolving a dispute through verification and regularisation.
The central principle should be straightforward: government must not destroy first and investigate later.
Zimbabwe has seen enough of that approach.
The lesson from previous demolitions should have been that enforcement without humanity creates victims, resentment and institutional distrust. The State and local authorities have a duty to enforce planning laws, but they equally have a duty to protect citizens from arbitrary administrative action.
St Martins therefore demands more than another press statement.
It demands compensation.
Where council's own acts, omissions, approvals, sales or administrative failures contributed to the destruction of homes belonging to people who bought land from the municipality in good faith, affected families must be compensated appropriately.
Where rebuilding or regularisation is legally and technically possible, that option must be prioritised.
The burden cannot simply be dumped on citizens who trusted the very institution now telling them that their investments were unlawful.
And compensation must not become a mechanism for hiding wrongdoing.
There must be an independent audit of the St Martins land allocations. The audit must establish the paper trail from the initial allocation to the demolition. Its findings must be made public.
Officials implicated in wrongdoing must face disciplinary action, prosecution or other appropriate sanctions.
No official should be able to destroy a citizen's home through an administrative blunder and then retire comfortably while the victim sleeps in a tent.
That is not accountability.
That is impunity.
The City of Harare is entrusted with public power. Its officials are not custodians of private fiefdoms. They are public servants.
If they make mistakes, there must be consequences.
If they abuse office, there must be consequences.
If corruption is established, there must be consequences.
If negligence causes citizens to lose their homes, there must be consequences.
And where the evidence demonstrates that senior officials authorised or enabled reckless destruction, their positions must not become shields against accountability.
St Martins should become the moment when Harare says enough is enough.
The solution to corruption at council is not another bulldozer.
It is transparency.
The solution to administrative chaos is not homelessness.
It is proper record-keeping.
The solution to illegal land allocations is not indiscriminate destruction.
It is identifying the people who allocated, sold, approved and benefited from the transactions.
And the solution to the St Martins tragedy is not silence.
There must be consequences. There must be compensation. There must be a full investigation. And where wrongdoing is established, heads must roll at Harare City Council.
The people of St Martins deserve nothing less.
