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This article participates on the following special index pages:

  • Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles


  • Chefs grab 'Garikai' houses
    Gibbs Dube, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
    February 06, 2006

    http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?path=./news/2006/February/Sunday5/&st_id=761

    BULAWAYO - Two children of a government minister, police officers, a large number of civil servants and soldiers are the beneficiaries of "Operation Garikai/ Hlalani Kuhle" in Gwanda.

    The revelations come at a time when government has ordered that beneficiaries immediately move into the houses, although these are without water and sewer reticulation systems.

    Ignatious Chombo, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, has given the green light for the residents to put up Blair toilets and other "temporary toilets" in their suburbs where they would get water from communal taps.

    "Beneficiaries of completed houses which are not yet habitable because of lack of sewer and water reticulation are to move in and start using central water collection points as well as Blair toilets while permanent servicing arrangements are being made," notes a government directive in possession of The Standard.

    The scheme is designed to benefit homeless and poor people who were displaced by Zimbabwe's widely-condemned "Operation Murambatsvina".

    However, documents leaked to The Standard show that the programme is set to benefit well connected people and government officials.

    In Gwanda, two children of the Deputy Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Abednigo Ncube - Leslie and Colleta Thabiso Ncube - whose addresses are listed as 82 Senondo were allocated houses last Thursday.

    Ncube, who is also the Member of Parliament for Gwanda, used to stay at number 82 Senondo suburb before he moved to Jacaranda low-density suburb following his appointment as deputy minister.

    Leslie, an employee of the Gwanda Rural District Council and currently staying at his father's former residence, is listed as number 9323 on the town's housing waiting list which currently stands at more than 27 000, while his sister, Colleta, does not appear on the list at all.

    Other luminaries appearing on the housing list include Acting Officer Commanding Matabeleland South Assistant Commissioner Munorwei Shava Matutu; Etoile Silayigwana; provincial executive members of the ruling party Esau Moyo and Rabson Mpofu Mafu; and senior civil servants Calvin Nzima and Joseph Kamuzhanje.

    Several prison officers and their juniors also appear to have been allocated houses in Gwanda in what seems to have been a free-for-all for government workers.

    Nzima and Kamuzhanje are the provincial heads of the Central Mechanical and Equipment Department (CMED) and Physical Planning Department respectively.

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