Published: 3 hours ago

The High Court has dismissed an application by the Upper Crowhill Residents Association seeking to challenge the gated status of Mount Breezes Borrowdale Brooke Estate and reclaim access to a disputed road. Justice Joel Mambara ruled that the application was "fatally defective" and amounted to an abuse of court process, noting that the association had "no locus standi to approach this Court" and had acted with "dirty hands" by continuing to occupy stands and use an unapproved road.

"The applicant's illegal actions are not merely incidental to its claim - they are central to it," Justice Mambara said. "One cannot build an unlawful road through someone else's land and then ask a court to declare that road to be lawful."

The dispute centered on Crowhill Road, which Crowhill residents claimed historically provided access to Borrowdale Road. The City of Harare, however, issued a letter in 2015 expressing "no objection" to Mount Breezes establishing a gated community, leading to the installation of gates that blocked Crowhill residents from using the route.

The residents contended that the City's decision was unlawful and argued that servitudes establishing the road had been extinguished when the area was subdivided in 1999. The court dismissed the claim, highlighting that the association was improperly constituted, having come into existence only in 2024, and was attempting to reopen matters previously settled by earlier rulings. "A child born in 2024 cannot retrospectively challenge decisions that its parents made in 2015," Justice Mambara stated.

The judge also criticized the association for ignoring a binding 2014 consent order granting Crowhill Farm (Pvt) Ltd exclusive authority to represent residents in legal matters until the development was fully regularised. The court further determined that the application was effectively a review of administrative action disguised as a declaratory request and was "grossly out of time," seeking to overturn a City of Harare decision made nine years ago.

Dismissing the application with punitive costs, Justice Mambara warned that "the courts cannot connive at or condone the applicant's open defiance of the law. Citizens are obliged to obey the law of the land and argue afterwards."

The ruling reinforces previous judgments affirming Mount Breezes residents' rights to enjoy their gated community "free from trespass" and effectively ends Crowhill residents' long-standing efforts to force access through the estate.
- NewZimbabwe