Sineke Sibanda

EPWORTH residents on Thursday bemoaned the government’s neglect over an influx of land barons and corrupt councilors in the area who are parceling out land for personal gain.

Speaking on an interview with the ZimSentinel, Epworth Residents Development Association’s (ERDA) secretary general, Peter Nyapetwa, said the councilors working in cahoots with land barons are taking advantage of desperate home seekers.

“As ERDA, we are worried about cases of corruption taking place at Epworth and we therefore call upon the ministers responsible for local authority and lands to investigate the Epworth council which had been left like an island and has been doing as it pleases,” he said.

Nyapetwa added that the council has introduced a dubious programme where they bring in surveyors as land developers and ask people to pay about US$400.00 as surveying and pegging fees, which are inconsistent with the housing policy.

“We have seen a lot of surveyors, some of them friends with councilors coming to us and some of them not even registered with the Surveyor General’s office and they have been syphoning people’s hard earned cash and then just disappear. For instance we are looking for another one who said he is Mr Chirinda, he took people’s money and disappeared.”

Nyapetwa felt that people had been robbed because they were not aware of the Epworth bi-laws and the housing policies and said the government’s intervention should cajole the local authority to clarify these procedural issues.

Epworth Local Board’s chief executive officer was no available for comment.

The government has been recently working towards arresting land barons and to date, at least 15 have been arrested in Harare for allegedly selling state and council land to unsuspecting home-seekers extorting thousands of dollars from the unlawful deals.