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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Govt
warns of another clean-up operation
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
January 16, 2007
http://www1.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=13994&cat=1
GOVERNMENT has
warned that another clean-up operation might be on the cards if
displaced people continue to return and settle illegally in open
spaces in urban areas.
In an interview
yesterday, Harare Metropolitan Governor Cde David Karimanzira said
the Government was against illegal settlements in urban areas and
was worried that people were building shacks in open spaces, particularly
in Harare.
"As a policy,
we don't want squatters and all people that are building shacks
must destroy them.
"We might
go back to Operation
Murambatsvina if people continue to squat everywhere,"
he said.
Cde Karimanzira
urged all those who wanted a roof over their heads to approach their
respective local authorities for assistance.
"We want
well-planned settlements and the Government is not going to sit
and watch while people build shacks everywhere; they will be demolished,"
said Cde Karimanzira.
Squatter camps
are mushrooming in some parts of Harare including the leafy suburbs
of Gunhill where some domestic workers were reportedly building
shacks near their workplaces to cushion themselves against rising
transport costs.
The Government
embarked on a two-month clean-up exercise codenamed "Operation
Murambatsvina/Restore Order" in May 2005 to rid the country's
cities and towns of illegal residential and business structures
and other vices.
However, because
of a sharp increase in rentals, the majority of workers were finding
it difficult to secure decent accommodation, often resorting to
building shacks in open spaces.
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