By Fungayi Munyoro-Chingaira | Masvingo Mirror |
Chipinge Town Council has given a 30-day ultimatum to owners of unverified and unoccupied stands in Usanga suburb to engage the authority for verification or have the stands repossessed.
Acting Town Secretary James Mutemera told Chipinge Times that should stand owners fail to cooperate, council will declare the stands vacant and advertise again for repossession.
He also said that this is council’s third invitation to claimants of stands in the suburb.
“We have got stands in Usanga suburb which do not have files at our office. Some files are there but there are no offer letters. We are calling upon those people with stands numbers listed to come to council to get offer and acceptance letters in order for files and paperwork to be updated.
“We need to complete the process. Failure to do so within 30 days, we will declare the stands vacant and advertise again for repossession.
“These stands were issued from 2003-2006 and there is nothing on the ground. The period of development for residential stands is two –five years.
“The stands are far past that and no one is coming to say the stand is his or hers. We need to move on with development, it’s actually barring development,” he said.
Council invited all claimants of stands to a verification and regularisation exercise in 2014 but some did not engage the authority. Another invitation was given on October 30 2019 extending to December 20, 2019. Council however, failed to carry out the resolution owing to COVID-19.