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Demolitions start in Harare
Moses
Matenga, NewsDay
November 07, 2013
https://www.newsday.co.zw/2013/11/07/demolitions-start-harare/
Government yesterday
started demolishing illegally built housing structures including
tuck-shops in Ruwa and Damofalls warning that the programme would
be rolled out in all urban centres throughout the country.
In Chitungwiza,
Zanu-PF supporters yesterday demonstrated against the impending
demolition of illegal structures in the town. The party supporters,
most of whom benefited from illegal land deals engineered by party
leaders, said the demolitions constituted an abuse of human rights.
According to
Ruwa and Damofalls residents, riot police were keeping a watchful
eye while the demolitions were taking place.
A resident,
Denford Muchada said: “In Ruwa, they are demolishing all tuck-shops
and they are saying they will not listen to what people are saying.
Now they are going to Damofalls.”
An MDC-T Ruwa
councilor, who declined to be named, said the demolitions had affected
most parts of the high-density areas.
“This
is the same madness
of 2005. They say it was a directive from the minister. This
was against the wish of councillors,” the MDC-T councillor
said.
Police national
spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said
she was out of office and had not yet received information on the
reported demolitions.
However, Ruwa
town chairperson Phineas Mushayavanhu confirmed the demolitions,
but distanced his council from the destruction.
“They
demolished the structures. Riot police came and demolished the structures.
It was an order from central government and we are told it’s
going to affect all the towns. They started with Ruwa and went to
Damofalls, road by road,” Mushayavanhu said.
“As council,
we are against the idea of the demolition of the structures without
providing alternative accommodation. It’s a government programme
that we are being forced into.”
Zanu-PF supporters
in Chitungwiza, apart from staging demonstrations in protest against
the demolitions, threatened to take legal action if the Zanu-PF
government carried out its threat in the town.
The demonstrators
marched from the town council’s head office to Unit L where
Local Government deputy minister Joel Biggie Matiza was addressing
residents over the matter and later regrouped at the party offices
in Zengeza 4.
In separate
interviews, the Zanu-PF members said instead of victimising them
for supporting the party, government should concentrate on addressing
the health crisis in Chitungwiza where shortage of water and flowing
sewage posed a health time bomb in the sprawling city.
“We benefited
in these projects from Zanu-PF leaders in the area including Fraderick
Mabamba (who won
a council seat on a Zanu-PF ticket) and now for them to turn
against us, we feel betrayed,” a Zanu-PF youth who was part
of the demonstrators said.
Chitungwiza
Residents Trust (Chitrest) said it was not proper for government
to demolish houses without providing alternative accommodation.
“We shall,
therefore, approach the courts for litigation and mobilise our structures
as well as other stakeholders to be alert and on guard,” Chitrest
said in a statement.
Matiza reiterated
that the government would not relent on its decision to demolish
illegal structures in the dormitory town.
The MDC-T condemned
the demolitions in a statement saying it was insensitive
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