while in the other was a termite-ravaged cabin which served as an office. A motley of cement, asbestos and plastic water pipes were heaped behind the office while in the middle was an extraordinarily tall flag post which produced irritating sounds whenever wind blew.
Of all the things in the yard, only two big dogs and many village chickens, popularly known as road runners, had a sign of life.
You really needed to be careful walking in the poorly-maintained yard to avoid slips and falls.
The place resembled a sweet potato field lying derelict after years of continuous cultivation.
But, inside the makeshift office were three smartly-dressed gentlemen who spent much of their time on their phones telling people on the other end of the phone that all was well.
The car they had parked in the yard told the story of people who were sitting in the lap of luxury. It was a very nice car and words fail this writer to aptly describe this entrapment of riches.
Countless receipt books, some yellowing with age and site maps in an equally bad state, were on the desk.
But why a bad office, a bad road, smart people and an expensive car?
Something just told me not all was well.
The men all seemed to be of a questionable intelligence order or simply uneducated.
Their etiquette left a lot to be desired. Here were square pegs being forcing themselves into circular holes.
Each time their phones rang, they took it as an opportunity to tell everyone how well connected they were.
“Yah . . . yah business is good these days. By the way, you need to pay the deposit fast, so that you do not lose out. Servicing of the area is at full throttle and we have left our big office in town to see how things are going on here,” one of the office bearers said on the phone, making sure this writer was getting excerpts of how big their company was.
Welcome, to the world of property developers.
That is where things are happening these days. It is one industry that has taken the country by storm.
If you see someone blowing bucks these days, they are either an estate agent or property developer.
People actually fall over each other to be fleeced.
Kwadzinorohwa matumbu ndiko kwadzinomhanyira.
If you advise someone against approaching these guys, you are considered a man of limited horizons.
Names are thrown at you with reckless abandon.
Property developers are wreaking havoc in the communities in which we live. They have become gods, breaking the law with impunity and doing all things in the ugliest possible of ways.
Biblical prophet Jeremiah once cried out to God: “Oh Yahweh, why do the ways of the wicked prosper?”
That question can still be asked today when these guys are funnelling into their pockets money worked for by a people struggling to survive against the backdrop of a cash squeeze and steep costs of products and services. This is not to say all property developers are cheats. Billboards are now almost on every open space screaming “Stands, Stands, Stands”.
Even places used for worship by members of apostolic sects have not been spared.
Places near cemeteries are also being converted into stands! Tales of ghosts and other ills associated with graveyards now matter less.
There is a proliferation of such companies countrywide and more are surely still to come.
It is beyond doubt that everyone needs a roof above their head and these dubious, indigenous fly-by-night organisations are cashing in on that.
“You are not man enough if you have no house. Make hay while the sun shines,” you hear people saying in bars, churches and even at the workplace.
You are considered lame if you do not have a house in the city and to remove that curse, property developers are just about the right choice.
These guys seem to have everything for everyone. Yavo inhava yebenzi ine zvese.
They have various packages to suit different classes of people and pockets too.
Some of their schemes are too expensive, others moderate and others extremely down market. Unongozora mafuta anodairana neganda rako.
A check in any newspaper’s houses for sale column will show that there are countless firms purporting to be selling houses and vacant stands. Whether this is true, only the firms and God know.
Prospective clients that are nosy are dismissed: “If you are not decided, let us sell stands to those who are willing and ready.”
The land is priced according to terrain, geographic position, area and proximity to town. A house near town is priced higher and so on until you get to Epworth.
Land is the talk of town and most people are forming their housing co-operatives and raising funds for sewer and road construction.
Conmen starting these property development companies know what the ordinary man wants.
They simply heap pipes by the roadside and set up an office giving people the impression of work in progress and the rest is history. People will flock there in numbers just to set foot on the train of development only to emerge poorer later.
But the case is not without its problems.
Another check on the crimes’ pages will show you that some people are being arrested for selling people non-existent properties.
Others will sell you property which is not theirs.
There are predators in the industry, always looking for a fool to embezzle. Not all property developers are like that, but a good number of such characters are selling people bottled smoke.
You can be made to pay for a stand in installments, but on visiting the same office to pay your last instalment, you will find the people gone.
“These property developers are not good at all. They will make you pay money forever while some of them accept deposits from so many people vanishing.
“My sister used her pension to buy a housing stand in Malborough. She only discovered that she had been duped when she could not locate the estate agent to effect change of ownership,” a certain guzzler confided in this writer last weekend.
He said the sister was later stressed to death.
And she is not the only person who has been duped by bogus estate agents.
Others have been lucky to drag the culprits to court for redress but the majority has watched their money go. Cases of chairmen and treasurers of housing co-operatives being beaten up for abuse of funds are also not new. In the ghettos we have grown accustomed to seeing hordes of people at someone’s house demanding to know how their money had been used.
Some aggrieved people take the law into their own hands and beat up their leaders or grab their property whenever financial irregularities emerge.
It’s worse than a scandal if a housing co-operative treasurer organises a wedding. Members are quick to accuse him of theft.
Even if your child errs, people will think he has done so because “mwana wachairman.”
Gentle reader, while it is everyone’s wish to own a home, assess where you are committing your funds.

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