HOME Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe and Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga have been dragged to the High Court by Harare residents whose houses were razed down on Monday by anti-riot police.
At least 80 families in Glen Lorne, Harare, were left stranded after police destroyed their dwellings.
The affected families have engaged the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) seeking recourse.
ZLHR lawyer Webster Jiti representing residents from the different compounds of Glen Lorne, namely the Mahachi compound, Kan'anga compound and Mapande Compound, filed the court challenge yesterday.
The applicants are seeking an order barring police from evicting and destroying their property without a court order.
“On Monday, the police came to the applicants' residential area and demolished some of the residents' immovable property in Mahachi compound using fire while threatening and promising to continue with the demolition on Tuesday,” Jiti submitted.
Officer-in-charge Harare suburban district Chief Superintendent Chuma, Matanga, Kazembe were cited as respondents, respectively.
“The applicants, through their nominated representative, approached Highlands Police Station and made a police report whose docket was opened under RRB55702656. On Saturday, they wrote a letter to the fifth respondent (one Cherry Black), cautioning her against carrying out illegal evictions and demolitions in connivance with an unidentified man,” Jiti said.
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Jiti said residents approached the court because there was no other satisfactory remedy against the illegal evictions and demolition of their property.
“In the circumstances, it is just and equitable for this court to grant an urgent order that the respondents be barred from instructing and/or authorising members of Zimbabwe (sic).”
One of the applicants, Mathias Dangarembizi, in his founding affidavit, said the matter must be heard with urgency.
“Given that the authorities that are supposed to be protecting the citizens are the ones spearheading the brazen disregard of the law and leapfrogging procedures, the court must hear this matter urgently as I am chasing a moving target that, if not stopped, will cause more harm to me or any of the applicants with nowhere to find an adequate remedy,” he said.
