By A Correspondent- The Zanu PF government on Monday backtracked from destroying people’s houses in the country, including in Harare, Chitungwiza and Melfort in Mashonaland East province.
Local authorities in Harare, Chitungwiza and Goromonzi, with the assistance of the police, have, on orders from the government, been demolishing illegal structures, leaving many people homeless and also destroying their sources of income since three weeks ago.
However, yesterday, the ruling party summoned Local Government and Public Works minister July Moyo and the National Housing and Amenities minister Daniel Garwe to the party headquarters for a hastily arranged meeting and ordered a stop to the destruction with immediate effect.
“We summoned the two ministers responsible for urban planning and that of national housing, July Moyo and Daniel Garwe, respectively. We want to put it on record that Garwe came for the meeting while Moyo was spoken to on the phone and he agreed to the outcome of the meeting,” Zanu PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu told a Press conference.
He said Zanu PF was concerned with the “inhumane” demolition of properties in the affected areas.
“There have been ongoing demolitions in Mashonaland East province, Harare and Chitungwiza, leading to unwarranted loss of shelter and sources of income for our people. The party’s first secretary and President Emmerson Mnangagwa and all party officials uphold the right to shelter and human dignity. We, therefore, order that the current demolitions should stop forthwith.”
Mpofu said the party would hold a meeting today to decide how to compensate those affected by the demolitions.
“We are going to have a meeting tomorrow (today). It’s an all-stakeholders meeting that is aimed at resolving the matter. We will do it after the Cabinet meeting. We need to solve this matter, which has affected our people, urgently,” he said.
Thousands of home-seekers and informal traders have been affected by the demolition of houses, and the government has been blaming the MDC Alliance-led councils, while the opposition, in turn, blames the government for the chaos.
“This decision is binding even to the government. Government is a Zanu PF government, that’s why ministers of the various sectors here and the president of the party is the President of the country. There are no contradictions, we are talking of things happening under our government,” Mpofu said.
However, documents seen by NewsDay show that Zanu PF had initially okayed the Melfort project, whose houses were demolished last week.
Apparently, the developer and the residents were ordered to vacate the area after losing a court battle six months ago, but were defiant.
The ministry wrote to Eastwinds Properties, which was developing the area, on September 22 last year instructing the firm to immediately stop selling any more land to home-seekers and to discontinue all developments until all legal matters were resolved.
Close to 1 000 people, among them war veterans and people living with disabilities, were left counting losses after the Goromonzi Rural District Council (RDC) demolished their houses.
The Melfort stands project, popularly known as Diamond Park, attracted the interest of government with the National Housing ministry leading efforts to transform the area into a smart city.