Victims of Operation Murambatsvina have heaved a sigh of relief after Masvingo City Council rescinded its decision to demolish 100 houses built under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle to accommodate them.
Early last year, the local authority resolved to demolish the sub-standard houses built under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Khule arguing they had no water and sewer reticulation systems.
The council also said the houses were not on its master plan.
But, in a major climbdown Masvingo mayor Femias Chakabuda told NewsDay yesterday that council had resolved to seek about $6 million for construction of a trunk main sewer that would link the houses to the city’s main sewer system.
Chakabuda said council had plans to build an additional 2 000 houses near the site.
“We are no longer going to demolish the structures. We wanted to demolish because those structures were unplanned, but we would incur costs of rebuilding those houses for those people,” said Chakabuda.
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The mayor added: “The area where the Gariakai houses are has been surveyed and we have resolved to come up with a trunk main sewer, which will cater for those houses as well as others to be built on about 2 000 stands surveyed.”
He said his council had so far raised $2,1 million for the project.
Under Operation Murambatsvina, an estimated 700 000 residents were left homeless countrywide after their structures were condemned and demolished by government in a crackdown described by the MDC-T as meant to flush out its supporters from urban areas.
The United Nations also condemned the operation as inhuman.