The Government of Zimbabwe has defended its decision to award over 180 hectares of prime urban land to Pinnacle Holdings, a company owned by businessman and Zanu-PF official Philip Chiyangwa, as compensation for land repossessed in Stoneridge South.
The transaction, which has drawn public and parliamentary scrutiny, involves high-value plots located in Borrowdale, Highlands, Bluffhill, Strathaven, Arcadia, and Harare’s Central Business District, with an estimated worth exceeding US$40 million.
During a Parliamentary session on Wednesday, Mbizo Member of Parliament Corban Madzivanyika raised concerns over the rationale behind granting urban land in some of Harare’s most affluent suburbs instead of offering land of similar location and character to the original 514 hectares in Stoneridge South.
In response, Minister of Local Government and Public Works Daniel Garwe justified the compensation, stating that government valuers had assessed the Stoneridge property at US$40.465 million, and that compensation was offered on a value-for-value basis, not on the basis of size.
He further explained that the state took over the land to accommodate housing cooperatives and prevent the eviction of thousands of families who had already settled and constructed homes there.
“The alternative would have involved displacing thousands of families,” Garwe added, arguing that the intervention was meant to address ongoing disputes between informal settlers and private developers and to stabilize the housing situation.
However, critics and urban land watchdogs argue that the land awarded in suburbs like Borrowdale and Highlands commands significantly higher market value per square metre, raising suspicions of an unjustified windfall to Chiyangwa and calling into question the transparency and equity of the compensation process.
