Tsvangirai moved into the house in 2012. It had been purchased from South Africa-based Justin Davenport in 2007 for $800,000 and refurbished for $1.5 million. Government gave Tsvangirai about $1 million towards the renovations and he topped up with $400,000 from his personal coffers. But now government does not have the money to repay him.
“They (government) are keen to evict him but are finding it difficult as they are not in a position to repay him. He should be given the right to buy the house ahead of anyone else. Government is stuck and that is why it is not doing anything about it,” Luke Tamborinyoka, Tsvangirai’s spokesperson, told The Zimbabwean.
A Zanu (PF) MP claimed recently that Tsvangirai got $3 million dollars from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to buy the house, but the MDC-T leader insisted he did not get any loan from the central bank. It is alleged that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) had hatched a plot to have Tsvangirai pushed out of the Highlands house, possibly to make way for Phelekezela Mphoko, the second vice president.
Mphoko has been living in hotels since his elevation to the vice presidency last December and is reported to be shopping for a house. The government is broke and struggling to raise funds for key public projects and civil servants’ salaries.
Post published in: News