Top lawyer Mtetwa drags Harare City to court over destruction of protected wetland
Prominent human rights lawyer Beatrice Mtetwa has taken the City of Harare to the High Court, accusing it of pressing ahead with a housing development on a protected wetland despite a formal legal challenge and demands to stop the works. Mtetwa and conservation group BirdLife Zimbabwe want an urgent court order halting construction at Borrowdale West Ecologically Sensitive Area, warning that continued destruction could cause irreversible damage to a wetland that feeds into one of Harare’s major water sources. The application, set down for hearing before Justice Kwenda on Friday, accuses the local authority of continuing to disturb the wetland even after an appeal was lodged with Environment, Climate and Wildlife Minister on October 23 challenging the environmental clearance granted for th…