A total of 681 people with residences in Dar es Salaam’s Msimbazi valley found reason to heave sighs of relief yesterday after the High Court (Land Division) ordered the demolition of their houses suspended pending the hearing of their petition.
However, this did not prevent the resumption of the government-sanctioned pulling down of buildings and other structures said to have been put up illegally elsewhere in the sprawling city.
After going through submissions by the applicants against respondents – Kinondoni Municipal Council, National Environment Management Council and the Attorney General’s Office, Judge Penteirine Kente was granted the petitioners’ prayer that the status quo be maintained pending the hearing of the case.
However, Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner Said Meck Sadiki reiterated to journalists that the countrywide demolitions would continue as planned and vowed that all buildings and other structures standing in unauthorised areas would be flattened.The RC also warned against the grabbing of farms or plots on the pretext that the land in question had stood undeveloped for too long, “as that would amount to breaking the law and therefore all culprits will face the full wrath of the law”.
He said thousands of Dar es Salaam residents were now illegally grabbing farms and plots just because they had been evicted from their residences in flood-prone and other unauthorised areas, including forests.
“Those invading land are committing a crime and are supposed to respect procedures or risk court action,” said the RC, adding: “It is mainly for public safety reasons that the government has begun throwing out all those who have invaded open spaces or variously developing restricted areas such as flood-prone areas.”
He said the government would no longer entertain excuses for people to invade and create unplanned settlements, elaborating: “Technically, there is no idle land or forest. All the areas invaded are legally registered for uses that are well documented, complete with the people or institutions in whose names the land is registered.”
A least 2,000 people are said to have invaded a forest in Dar es Salaam’s Boko suburb legally owned by a businessman on the grounds that the area has never been developed, contrary to the President John Magufuli’s directives.
According to reports, the alleged intruders say they are concerned seeing the land for decades left idle and turning into hideouts for muggers and armed robbers.
Other incidents of the kind have been reported in the city’s Mabwepande suburb – involving a 300-hectare chunk of land belonging to former Prime Minister Frederick Sumaye.
“We have reports these same people are dividing the plots among themselves,” said RC Sadiki, adding: “The most the President has done is to instruct district councils to identify left idle by would-be investors so they can revert to the government for alternative use.”
He declared that Dar es Salaam has no more land for development into human settlements, also stressing that no victims of the demolitions now under way would be compensated or allocated alternative land for development.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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