SYDNEY SAIZE IN MUTARE
The Mutare City Council has extended its grace period to residents to regularise their illegal structures with the local authority following overwhelming response from a large number of residents who showed willingness to address the anomaly, Business Times can report.
Initially, the local authority had given the residents up to the end of October.
But, it has since extended the period to the end of this December.
Mutare city council spokesperson Spren Mtiwi confirmed the latest development saying “council had offered residents another grace period to enable them to formalise the irregularities on the said structures’’.
After the deadline, Mtiwi said the council would take stern measures against those that would not adhere to the call, not ruling out demolitions and hefty fines.
“The council took the deliberate position to extend the grace period for property owners whose structures were not regularised.
There was an influx during their last days of the promotion and took the position to extend the period so that people have ample time to regularise their structures so that come end of December when we will be affecting the penalty provisions people would have been given ample time to attend to their infrastructure plan requirements,” said Mtiwi.
He said the council would be imposing hefty penalties for residents that fail to adhere to the said requirements.
“The penalty provision would be very deterrent enough and will act as a lesson to would be offenders in future, the penalty would be very punitive and will take that seriously so that we abide by the city by laws with regard to infrastructure development in the city.
Council will also not rule out demolitions, but each case will be treated as it comes,” Mtiwi said.
There has been a proliferation of illegal structures in the eastern border city and other urban areas around the country as some citizens choose to construct buildings without approval from authorities.
Some local authorities such as Harare City Council, Chitungwiza and Masvingo have in the past demolished such illegal structures before the intervention of the government that halted the exercise.
