The High Court has ordered the City of Harare to stop allocating or regularising residential stands in Budiriro to anyone other than members of the Johane Masowe Chishanu Nyenyedzi Nomwe Housing Cooperative Society, ruling that the cooperative has lawful rights over the land.

The court also criticised the municipality for employing what it described as delaying tactics in an attempt to postpone the matter pending a separate rescission application.

In a judgment delivered by Justice Regis Dembure, the court granted a final interdict protecting the cooperative’s members from interference on a piece of land known as Stand 2254, the remainder of Glen Eagles Farm in Budiriro, where more than 140 residential stands are located.

The court ordered the municipality to immediately stop harmonising or regularising any persons other than the cooperative and its members on the stands, which range from Stand 22509 to Stand 22666. No order as to costs was made.

The dispute arose after the housing cooperative accused the local authority of attempting to regularise other occupants on land that had already been allocated to its members.

The cooperative told the court that it applied for the land in 2014 and was later directed by council officials to regularise the occupation and pay intrinsic land value, which it did. Members subsequently invested significant amounts in infrastructure development, including water and sewer reticulation.

Tensions escalated in 2024 when council officials allegedly began a fresh regularisation exercise on the same land, raising fears that the cooperative’s members could lose their stands.

The cooperative argued that the process threatened to dispossess its members despite previous approvals and payments made to the municipality.

The City of Harare opposed the application, arguing that the cooperative had occupied the land illegally and that regularisation was still in progress.

The municipality also claimed that no offer letters had been issued to the cooperative and that payments made for intrinsic land value were not authorised.

Council officials maintained that the regularisation exercise was merely a data-collection process and did not amount to eviction or interference with occupants.

However, the court noted that the dispute had already been addressed in an earlier consent order granted in March 2025, in which the municipality acknowledged that the land had been allocated to the cooperative’s members.

Justice Dembure ruled that the consent order remained binding unless set aside by a competent court, emphasising that a valid court order must be obeyed until it is lawfully overturned.

He said the existence of the consent order established the cooperative’s clear legal right to the land.

The court found that the cooperative had satisfied the legal requirements for a final interdict by proving a clear legal right, a reasonable apprehension of harm, and the absence of an adequate alternative remedy.

Justice Dembure held that the council’s intended regularisation created a real risk that the stands could be allocated to third parties, which would prejudice the cooperative’s members.

He ruled that the municipality could not treat the cooperative’s occupation as illegal after previously acknowledging the allocations.

Before the merits were argued, the municipality unsuccessfully sought to have the matter removed from the roll pending the outcome of an application to rescind the earlier consent order.

The court dismissed the request, finding that the municipality had failed to provide sufficient reasons for the postponement and had not acted timeously.

Justice Dembure said the application appeared to be a delaying tactic and noted that the council had not even offered to pay wasted costs.

“The respondent did not do the needful. It had to wait for the hearing before me to make the application. In my view, the belated attempt to do so without giving full and satisfactory reasons in the circumstances cannot be acceptable. 

It can only be a delaying tactic by the respondent as it seeks to gauge its chances on another matter which is pending before the court,” Justice Dembure noted.

The ruling effectively bars the City of Harare from reallocating or regularising the Budiriro stands to other people while the cooperative’s rights remain in force.