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Mbare residents up in arms with council
Community Radio Harare
September 11, 2009

Tension is mounting in Mbare amid indications that the City of Harare is planning to evict thousands of residents who are failing to pay for council owned accommodation. This comes after last weekend's attempts by city authorities to evict payment defaulters were thwarted by residents who ganged up and barred city security personnel from evicting them.

There was drama as residents cordoned off Mbare hostels and threatened to beat anyone who tried to enter into the affected houses. The residents were complaining that the rentals that the city was demanding were to high and did not meet the housing standards as most hostels are in a dilapidated state with sewage flowing everywhere as the ageing sewer pipes can no longer cope with the situation.

Although residents succeeded in preventing the council from evicting them, most of them are now living in fear as they suspect that the local authority might rope in Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to help eject them. "We are now living in fear because when we told them last week that they could not move us because the rentals that they are demanding are too exorbitant, they threatened to bring in ZRP so we are now afraid to be forced out at any time because it looks like the issues will no longer be that of residents against the local council but that of us against national police and this is quite scaring given that the police were used to evict us during the cruel 2005 Murambatsvina," said David Chitate of Nenyere Flats who said he was himself a victim of the last evictions carried by the government in 2005.

At Matapi Flats, where a lot of the elderly and women vendors are staying, a 70 year old widow told CORAH FM that the city council was being insensitive to the less privileged by charging blanket rentals without looking at the kind of tenants occupying the hostels. "Had it not been that residents teamed up against the people of council, I would have been a squatter now because they are demanding many US Dollars that I cannot manage to raise. Infact I am living in fear because I heard they are going to bring policemen and if that happens, then that would be the end of many of us. At the moment I survive from money that I get from sending my four orphaned grandchildren to sell container bags at Mbare Musika. That money is not even enough for us to get basics and so how do they expect me to raise such outrageous amounts?" She complained.

According to residents, council is demanding rentals ranging from US$200 to 700 and these amounts date back to the period when the economy was officially dollarized. They also complained that they are being forced to pay monthly rentals averaging US$80 for the one-roomed apartments at Matapi, Shawasha and Nenyere flats.

Efforts to get a comment from the Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) were fruitless but council spokesperson, Leslie Gwindi, was quoted in the media as saying the local authority was determined to evict those who have not paid their dues. He said council had no money and so had to force people to pay up.

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