Thereafter, Chombo’s ministry attempted dismally to do damage control with a sorry residential project, ironically named Garikai-Hlalani Kuhle (live comfortably), for a place where one would be hard-pressed to find even one house with fully functional indoor plumbing. And who can forget the ill-advised cancellation of all council bills, which left most municipalities struggling to pay salaries. Then came a second wave of property destruction, after the local government snoozed, while desperate home-seekers built their properties on wetlands.
History will remember Chombo as a minister of local government who destroyed more homes than he build and a town planner whose uncollected refuse and burst sewer pipes cost 6,000 lives after a countrywide cholera epidemic.