The Sunday Mail
There are many housing projects being carried out on wetlands, requiring a lot of trenching to dry the ground before building what are commonly called “special foundations”. It can’t be true that council is not aware of such developments.
Whenever there is talk of plans to demolish illegal housing structures, one is immediately reminded of the year 2005. There is a huge difference, but the effect is nearly the same.
The motives are different between then and now, but the net effect is the same.
Chitungwiza Town Council plans to raze about 14 000 residential structures which are at different stages of construction. Some of them are complete houses.
The reasons for the demolitions are to do with a Government audit which was done last year. It was “discovered” that most of these residential structures were built on unsuitable sites.
Some are sited in wetlands while others are said to be located under electricity mainlines, thus posing a major hazard to the occupants.
The 2005 clean-up operation, dubbed Murambatsvina, was meant to destroy urban slums that had been haphazardly erected in most towns to provide accommodation and business premises largely in the form of tuckshops.
Most of them were not authorised.
In fact, in a majority of cases there were no approved plans, no water or sewage reticulation systems or road infrastructure. There is no known term to describe what was happening — besides chaos.
For different reasons, people ascribed political motives to the operation.
Because of its larger vote in urban areas, the MDC immediately claimed ownership of the victims of the operation. It claimed that those targeted were being victimised for voting against Zanu-PF.
Conscripted non-governmental organisations and civic society bodies quickly jumped on the bandwagon of political victimisation.
The whole truth will probably never be known. But it is patently ridiculous for anyone to believe that only lodgers vote for MDC. That would imply that landlords don’t vote.
Secondly, some of the people whose illegal structures were destroyed actually built them under the auspices of Zanu-PF- affiliated housing co-operatives. Remember the story of Cde Chinx and the fate of his house?
The fact that the operation was executed in the midst of winter only served to paint the Zanu-PF Government as a cruel master.
Come 2008, the year of the cholera outbreak.
It is estimated that 4 000 people succumbed to the epidemic. But up to now one shudders to imagine with hindsight the number of people who would have died had we not had Murambatsvina.
There is no doubt that most of the residential areas were overcrowded and filthy. Water problems were commonplace just as were burst sewage pipes.
It makes Murambatsvina look like a pre-emptive strike that saved lives.
That does not obviate the logical question: why were those structures allowed to mushroom?
Which takes us to the latest furore concerning the Chitungwiza demolitions.
Following the infamous audit, the council wanted to immediately knock down the houses. The residents quickly took the issue to the courts. The magistrate stopped the demolitions.
Now the council has escalated the fight by seeking a High Court order to demolish the illegal structures.
A lot of issues arise, but first it must be acknowledged that there is a culture of corruption and lawlessness which has been allowed to take root in our society.
We have people who were elected to council who unprocedurally sold council land to desperate home-seekers for a profit.
Most such people are walking about unpunished. Meanwhile, the victims of that scam, most of whom put their life savings into these structures, are set to lose everything.
How could such massive projects, 14 000 stands in all, go undetected by both Chitungwiza Town Council and the Housing Ministry?
We have to accept that all our towns have huge housing backlogs. People live in crowded places. Necessity forces people to resort to unorthodox ways to secure what they want. They will pay bribes if that will get them accommodation for their families.
And the blame must lie squarely with Government and local authorities for failing to provide accommodation.
While it is easier said than done, Government has a duty to minimise people’s suffering even where there have been infractions of the law. It must not land itself to opportunistic charges of punitive callousness.
That is to say, where people are found to be breaking the law by erecting residential structures in undesignated places, this must be immediately halted.
People should not be left to put all their resources in houses only to have them destroyed, especially in our case where it is obvious that there will be no monetary compensation nor alternative accommodation to the victims of this self-evident official delinquency.
There is also need for a thorough investigation to unmask those behind the scam. Who demarcated the stands, with whose authority? Whose land was it? Where is the money paid for the stands?
There will obviously be the usual squeals of political victimisation. Those involved must prove that they are in fact clean, squeak and span. It would be grossly unfair that those who orchestrated the scam got money and bought themselves properly serviced stands in upmarket locations in Harare while living their victims high and dry, and they are left to enjoy the fruits of their misdemeanours.
But the story of wetlands does not end in Chitungwiza.
Local authorities have generally been lax in enforcing by-laws. Every year Harare council makes official noises against stream bank cultivation yet people are left to plant their maize up to the river. Along Mukuvisi they are only stopped by the water.
There are many housing projects being carried out on wetlands, requiring a lot of trenching to dry the ground before building what are commonly called “special foundations”. It can’t be true that council is not aware of such developments.
On the extreme side, most of the hills in Harare’s high-density suburbs have been denuded of all vegetation while council turns a blind eye.
People plant their maize up to the hilltop. Trees are randomly cut for firewood which is sold in public without council showing any concern.
Something is certainly rotten somewhere and the poor end up the victims of laws being applied retrospectively.
Joram Nyathi is Zimpapers Group Political Editor
