HARARE City Council officials were yesterday forced to flee and abandon their planned demolition of illegal structures at Dare ReChimurenga Housing Co-operative, after the property owners armed themselves with logs and threatened to assault them.
BY MOSES MATENGA
The co-operative members barricaded all roads leading to the site with rocks and stopped two council-owned front-end loaders from entering the area, forcing the drivers to flee for safety.
Council spokesperson, Michael Chideme, however, vowed to continue with the demolition exercise and dismissed claims by the residents that the targetted properties were legally built.
“We are stepping in to remove all illegal structures. Those people saying they have papers should actually have authentic papers not just papers,” he said.
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When NewsDay visited the area in the afternoon, scores of angry residents were gathered at the entry points, where they vetted all “strangers” driving into the area.
“We are registered co-operatives here and we have our papers in order. Former town clerk, (Tendai) Mahachi once came here and told us to go ahead, but respect the boundaries with Ingwe Farm (a council farm). The local councillor, (Tungamirai Madzokere) also blessed this project and we don’t really know what they are up to now,” co-operative member, Wurayayi Gwenere said.
He said they had letters signed by acting town clerk, Josephine Ncube and several correspondences from the local authority.
More than 460 houses have so far been built, with women saying they have been the hardest hit by threats of demolitions and have resorted to joining their husbands in the night in guarding their properties.
“We are now sleeping on the road every day because we fear they can come anytime. We have gone for weeks now sleeping outside because we can’t afford to have them demolish our structures,” another resident said.
Martha Nyarota, a mother of a six-month old baby, said it was inhuman to expose residents, especially children to such cruelty.
“We are always living in fear of what will happen to our children once our houses have been destroyed. We got loans, others used lifetime investments to build these structures and they just want to demolish them just like that. It’s sad,” she said.