{"id":100795,"date":"2024-11-19T23:22:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-19T21:22:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-interference-in-harare-demolitions-threatens-rule-of-law"},"modified":"2024-11-20T01:28:20","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T23:28:20","slug":"government-interference-in-harare-demolitions-threatens-rule-of-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-interference-in-harare-demolitions-threatens-rule-of-law","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Government Interference In Harare Demolitions Threatens Rule Of Law&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>The Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability in corporate and political governance, has expressed concerns about the central government\u2019s interference in the Harare City Council\u2019s (HCC) efforts to demolish illegal structures. They argue that this interference poses a threat to the rule of law.<\/p>\n<p>The controversy arose after Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe announced that the government had ordered HCC to halt the demolition of homes built on illegally acquired land.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, IDT suggested that the central government\u2019s intervention appears to be motivated more by image management than by a commitment to good governance. It added:<\/p>\n<p>Critics argue this undermines local authority efforts, perpetuates illegal settlements, and fails to hold land barons accountable.<\/p>\n<p>The interference raises questions about the separation of powers, as political considerations override judicial rulings.<b>Buy Samsung, itel, Redmi smartphones in Zimbabwe<\/b><br \/>\n<b>WhatsApp: +263715068543<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The opposition-led HCC faces persistent challenges from the ruling government, weakening public trust and service delivery.<\/p>\n<p>While ensuring humane demolitions is essential, undermining the law risks creating a culture of impunity.<\/p>\n<p>The government must address root causes like poverty, corruption, and housing shortages while respecting judicial independence and local authority autonomy.<\/p>\n<p>Failure to strike this balance threatens governance and the rule of law in Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n<p>Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume recently announced that the city council plans to demolish over 5,000 illegal structures, having obtained 37 High Court orders to support the action.<\/p>\n<p>The demolitions are part of an ongoing effort to address illegal constructions that have proliferated across the capital.<\/p>\n<p>However, the decision to halt the demolitions for the time being has raised questions. Speaking at his ministry\u2019s strategic workshop for 2025 in Bulawayo on Thursday, Minister Garwe said that the pause was made to avoid negative publicity as Zimbabwe prepares to host the Southern African Development Community (SADC) extraordinary summit this week.<\/p>\n<p>Garwe also accused the opposition CCC-led Harare City Council of deliberately timing the demolitions to coincide with the summit.<\/p>\n<p>He suggested that the council\u2019s actions were intended to attract unwanted attention, undermining the country\u2019s image on the international stage during such an important event.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. The Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting transparency and accountability in corporate and political governance, has expressed concerns about the central government\u2019s interference in the Harare City Council\u2019s (HCC) efforts to demolish illegal structures. They argue that this interference poses a threat to the rule of law. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":100794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[852,5693,1563,17228,19],"class_list":{"0":"post-100795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-harare-city-council","10":"tag-house-demolitions","11":"tag-illegal-structures-demolitions","12":"tag-information-for-development-trust","13":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Government Interference In Harare Demolitions Threatens Rule Of Law&quot; - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting transparency and accountab ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-interference-in-harare-demolitions-threatens-rule-of-law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Government Interference In Harare Demolitions Threatens Rule Of Law&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Information for Development Trust (IDT), a non-profit organisation dedicated to promoting transparency and accountab ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-interference-in-harare-demolitions-threatens-rule-of-law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-19T21:22:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-19T23:28:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2024\/11\/sm_1732046276.635114.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-interference-in-harare-demolitions-threatens-rule-of-law\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/government-interference-in-harare-demolitions-threatens-rule-of-law\",\"name\":\"\\\"Government Interference In Harare Demolitions Threatens Rule Of Law\\\" - 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