Members of the Tembwe Housing Co-operative have described the recent wave of demolitions that hit Budiriro 4 suburb as illegal and have vowed to stay put on their residential stands despite the demolitions.
The blitzkrieg demolition on some of the houses under the Tembwe Housing Co-operative by council officials on Wednesday morning left the victims clueless regarding their next move and some of the victims have opted to remain in and amongst the vandalised structures.
Conspiracy theories were abound that the demolition was a well – coordinated case that emanated from the need to redistribute the stands to “greedy” council officials.
Flustered owners of the stands could not cover their grief and accused council officials and staunch ZANU PF supporters of being part of the “swindle”.
Occupants surrounded the 263Chat team as each one tried to have their side of the story jotted down. Scores of the tenants accused council officials of being corrupt.
Tembwe Housing Co-operative secretary who identified himself as Madzibaba said the demolition of their houses was illegal.
“This is clearly illegal, we have learnt that for council to demolish structures they need a High Court order not this piece of paper,” said Madzibaba while passing a piece of paper, regarded as the eviction order to this reporter.
The credibility of the eviction order was questionable as the paper had a stamp dated 2014, which was then altered to a recent date using pen.
Most of the people interviewed by 263Chat ostensibly claimed that council seeks to drive them away and pave way for some of its covetous counterparts.
“We are aware of the fact that council wants to chase us so that they bring in some people.
“Why would Council destroy part of the houses in the same cooperative while neglecting some of the other houses. Something fishy is going on,” said a woman who requested anonymity.
Another victim of the demolitions concurred with the above argument when he blasted council for selectively demolishing houses.
“Vari kujambirei dzimba if we were supposed to go dai taenda tose kwete kuti unoputsa pamwe, pamwe wosiya,” said Albert Gumbo.
Efforts to get a comment from Harare City Council Spokesperson, Michael Chideme were fruitless as his phone was not going through.
The Newsday article quoted him saying “Harare residents should learn to respect land uses. There is land meant for schools, clinics and recreation. We should make sure we do not tamper with such land.
“Everything that council pulled down today was illegal,” Chideme said.
Affected families, who are members of Tembwe Housing Co-operative, maintained that the land, initially was “proposed” school land but was then altered for settlement.
“How can they construct a school on a land that is less than the hectrage required to set up a school? This land is now 2,8 hectares instead of the 3,6 needed for a school,” said Tendai Chasi.
Chimuti Chimuti / August 14, 2015
Government must protect its people not to make them suffer. Where were they when people built those houses. Prosecute those who sold the illegal land first and talk of demolition after making a plan B for people. It is the duty of local councils to monitor activities in their areas of responsibility daily to prevent illegal structures. People bought stands from housing coops were being led by people working in cahoots with councils officials and top people from the Ministry of local government. A house is not built in one day. How can the government come to demolish houses built 2 to 5 years ago and start claiming they are illegal.
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