By Idah Mhetu

THE Harare City Council Wednesday dispatched earthmovers to demolish 108 illegal structures in Budiriro near High Glen Mall with authorities saying more buildings were going to be reduced to rubble this Thursday.

The city council revealed this on its official Facebook page on Wednesday.

“108 illegal structures in Budiriro near High Glen Mall brought down today.

“Council has a court order to bring down the 500 illegal structures. The structures are cabins,” read the statement in part.

City spokesperson Michael Chideme confirmed the development in a later interview with NewZimbabwe.com, adding that council was acting on the strength of a court order that has given authorities the green light to put down the structures.

“Yes, council has demolished 108 cabins on Wednesday with a court order the reason being the structures are illegal,” he said, adding that council will bring down more houses this Thursday.

“On Thursday we will demolish more structures,” he said.

Early August this year, Harare city authorities backed down on their earlier decision to resume demolishing illegal structures because they wanted to first seek the courts’ intervention in attempts to stop continued invasions on its land.

This followed a Supreme Court ruling against 48-hour notices which were made by council to demolish illegal homes.

Harare City Council then decided to proceed by way of urgent chamber applications which were intended to put the invasions to a halt as well as any further developments on invaded pieces of land while awaiting the courts to issue summons for evictions.

Local rights have often resisted the demolition of homes insisting accommodation was a human right.