No Plans, No Water, No Sewer: A Zimbabwe City Orders a Church Built on Public Open Space to Come Down

• The City of Mutare issued a demolition order against a church in Dangamvura
• The council says the building sits on public open space without planning approval
• It has no sanitary facilities, piped water or sewerage, and uses substandard materials
• A church elder said the denomination was acting only as landlord

A church building in Dangamvura, a high-density suburb of Mutare in eastern Zimbabwe, has been ordered demolished. Bulawayo24 reported in May 2025 that the City of Mutare served the order over a structure on Stand 7458 linked to the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa, known as ZAOGA.

The council’s list of problems was long. It said the building had gone up without the necessary planning approvals, on land designated as public open space, in breach of the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act and the Dangamvura local development plan. It said the structure had no sanitary facilities, no piped water and no sewerage, was built from substandard materials, and posed a significant health risk to worshippers and neighbours.

“It is an illegal structure that does not appear in our records for us to verify the owners,” said the city’s spokesperson, Charles Sadondo. The order was issued on 14 March 2025 and was due to take effect on 14 April unless it was appealed within a month.

The church’s own position was unclear. A church elder, Zviito Tsio, declined to comment and referred questions to the congregation using the building, saying ZAOGA was acting as landlord. That raises the question of who is responsible when a building owned by one body and used by another fails to meet planning rules.

Jamaica’s planning authorities have made similar complaints about churches building without permits, and the Mutare case shows how a small shortcut can grow into a demolition order. A church hall without toilets, water or proper drainage is not only a planning problem but a public health one. Churches here, and diaspora members raising money for church buildings back home, should budget for approvals, sanitation and proper materials from the start, and should make sure the land is zoned for the purpose. A cheap building on the wrong land can end up costing everything that went into it.

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