GOVERNMENT yesterday gave permission to over 200 homeless families in Epworth’s Overspill area, whose illegal houses and shacks were demolished last week, to return and rebuild their houses.
Report by Staff Reporter
A decision had been made to initiate moves to turn the industrial area into a residential area to accommodate the families that had been made homeless following the destruction of their illegal structures.
Most of the people were Zanu PF members who had reportedly been allocated the illegal stands by shadowy local party officials whom they paid various amounts of money.
Local Government deputy minister Sesel Zvidzai confirmed the development.
Sunway City (Pvt) Ltd, a private company, last week demolished the slums on the strength of a court order which ruled that the shacks had been built on private property meant for industrial development.
Those that had made the allocations were identified as local Zanu PF officials who had apparently done so without the permission of the owners of the land.
Sunway City general manager Kwaku Dzukamanja could not be reached for comment at the time of going to print last night. He is, however, on record saying the settlers had defied previous warnings to vacate the land.
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Soon after the demolitions, Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman Amos Midzi condemned the act as inhumane and pledged to assist the families with maize-meal.
Zvidzai said the affected families had been allowed to rebuild their houses, while government identified an alternative site for the company.
He said he would be visiting the affected families today to assess their needs.
“Government will provide funds to assist in the housing programmes. We are always on the side of the poor and we can’t push them into further poverty,” he said.
“Any Murambatsvina is unacceptable and the people of Zimbabwe deserve better. There is a form of Murambatsvina in Epworth that we will be going to look at. The Sunway City land where 200 people lost accommodation should be acquired by government and be given to the poor.”
