by Staff Reporter

Harare City Council officials accompanied by vicious dogs on Tuesday, this week, demolished more than 180 houses in Harare’s Budiriro 5 suburb leaving hundreds of people homeless and exposed to the harsh weather conditions characterized by the rain season.

When Harare Post visited Budiriro 5, hundreds of affected residents were pondering their next move, whilst others were weeping uncontrollably.

Budiriro resident Erica Chikuse told this publication that they were surprised to see council officials coming with front-end loaders to demolish their houses without notice.

 “The council officials came here with a front-end loader and started demolishing our houses. They had vicious dogs that they threatened to unleash on us if we resisted the demolitions. They told us to remove our property and as we started doing so, the houses were razed down together with our property,” said Chikuse whose two–roomed house was demolished.

Gladwin Mutete who also spoke to this publication said he was baffled to see council demolishing their houses after they had promised in 2014 that no house will be demolished.

“Ours is a registered cooperative and the council knows about our existence. In 2014, after we had some squabbles with the council, they then promised us that our homes will not be demolished. But some of the council officials hatched a plan to form a cooperative by the name Events Housing Cooperative so that they can take over our land.

“Some of the council officials told us that we should pay US$5 000 per household to have our stands regularized. When we failed to raise the money that’s when they approached the courts to have a court order so that they can destroy our homes. We are appealing to the Government to help us so that we can’t be chased away from our stands by corrupt City officials,” said Mutete.

Another Budiriro resident Justice Mukodza had no kind words for the council, which he described as a “den of heartless Satanists”.

“I’m in extreme pain. It’s raining and I don’t know where my kids will sleep today. I had faith in the MDC and I have been voting for them since 2000, but they have shown us that they are a group of heartless Satanists who doesn’t care for us. How can they demolish our homes during the rainy season? They are saying that we have illegally occupied the area, but why didn’t they give us a grace period so that we could find somewhere to live before they destroyed our homes. God will punish these evil people,” lamented Mukodza.

A widow whose house was also demolished said she had actually borrowed money to build the house.

 “I borrowed money from informal money lenders who demand lots of interests and to imagine that I will have to pay back for a non-existent house is painful,” narrated the widow who refused to be named.

Grace Kufamba who was injured when he house was demolished blamed the Harare City Council for being insensitive to the needs of the residents.

 “The habit of creating a war-like situation whenever council wants to deal with residents’ issues should be challenged. If council has issues with residents, it must always use dialogue and other non-violent means to address these issues. Violence should never been an option,” Kufamba said.

Reports are that the MDC-Alliance-led Harare Council resolved to demolish all structures they deemed illegal. They then approached the courts seeking an order to demolish the illegal structures and the courts granted the orders leading to the recent demolitions which caught the affected residents unaware.