Two neighbourhood secretaries arrested for allegedly selling land

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Two neighbourhood secretaries arrested for allegedly selling land

12:16 CAT | 26 Jun 2020

Photo: Conselho Municipal da Beira / Facebook page

Two neighbourhood secretaries [secretários de bairro] have been arrested in Beira for allegedly selling parcels of land in the Nhangoma area at prices ranging from 300 to 10,000 meticais. A further three individuals are on the run.

Land in Nhangoma should have been divided into lots starting in May, but Covid-19 has the delayed the process.

Neighbourhoods secretaries in the area, and their now-fugitive collaborators, including owners of machambas in Nhangoma , started selling the land at the end of last month.

A group who identified themselves as municipality employees collaborated with the two now-detained neighbourhood secretaries, parcelled out land in the area, and residents from various parts of Beira city bought the plots for amounts ranging from 300 to 10,000 meticais.

Beira municipal council noticed the transactions last week and this Tuesday began destroying all infrastructure illegally erected on the land. The demolition of the houses took place in the presence of Beira municipal police and members of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique.

One woman threw herself in front of the machine about to demolish her house.

“I will not leave here, kill me if necessary. I do not have the money to rent a house, and I built this place at great sacrifice. They did not notify us at the beginning not to invest our savings here,” she complained.

The woman was removed from the scene by the police and relatives, and her house was demolished, along with ten others.

One lady was caught by the municipality selling land to two sisters for 600 meticais a plot. She claimed that she was acting on behalf of her husband, who was endorsed by the neighbourhood secretary to do so. The municipality forced them to return the money they had received.

Albano Cariz, the councillor for construction and urbanisation in the area, said that the city council would not allow the occupation of land without municipality approval.

“It is time to put an end to disorderly construction that later creates disturbances in the management of the city. There is a project to expand the city and space will be allocated by the municipality. No neighbourhood secretary has approval to allocate land. Statements to this effect have been in circulation for more than a decade, so it is strange that people still, to this day, get scammed,” Cariz said.

By Francisco Raiva

Source: O País