More than 760 members of the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation, who have allegedly illegally settled themselves in Mutare, have vowed to resist attempts to evict them.
BY KENNETH NYANGANI
This follows a recent council resolution to evict the illegal settlers and demolish their houses.
“We have done all necessary plans that, anytime next week, we are going to evict these people. We have taken necessary measures to notify the Local Government ministry, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and district’s administrators’ office over the matter,” a council official, Alfred Maenzanise said.
The settlers, through their lawyer, Passmore Nyakureba, wrote to acting town clerk, Donald Nyatoti saying they would challenge the planned eviction in court.
The letter was copied to Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Mandi Chimene, the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission and Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights among others.
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Part of the letter read: “We are reliably advised that in a full council meeting held on January 10, 2017, council resolved that you are to go ahead and demolish the structures belonging to our clients. We further advised that you have already started mobilising your human rights resources to do exactly that.
“In light of the current developments, we write to reiterate that the process you have instituted is both illegal and unconstitutional. We refer to section 74 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which provides that: ‘No person may be evicted from their home or have their home demolished without a court order made after considering all the relevant circumstances’.”
The municipality last year issued enforcement and prohibition orders against the federation boss, Luke Mukungatu and his committee members.