Home demolitions: Hre ‘council must resign’

The MDC-T is in charge of Harare … Elton Mangoma

Demolitions of houses have continued in Harare over the past three years, leaving thousands of people homeless.

The demolitions which are being engineered by government and executed by Harare city council target houses which were allegedly built on “illegal” sites.

Most of the affected are those people allocated some pieces of land by housing cooperatives.

However, despite controlling the Harare council, the Morgan Tsvangirai-led MDC-T party said it was not responsible for the demolitions because the Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni’s position is ceremonial.

The party blames government for hesitating to re-align relevant laws with the new constitution so that local authorities are empowered to control their councils.

But addressing Journalists in Harare Wednesday, RDZ leader Elton Mangoma said the MDC-T council should resign if they are not responsible for destroying people’s houses.

“It’s them who are in the fore front of destroying people’s houses; it was them who were at the fore front of destroying vendors’ infrastructure in the cities,” said Mangoma.

“Why blaming someone. Why not stand aside and let those who are guilty, or you think its Zanu PF doing it themselves?”

The former MDC-T deputy national treasurer said Tsvangirai’s party was assisting the ruling Zanu PF to violet people’s fundamental rights.

“The municipal police will be right there, and all these people are accountable to the MDC and I think the MDC should grow up and not be crybabies; they are totally in charge of the city of Harare,” said Mangoma.

“So, in this case they are (possibly) not worse than Zanu PF because Zanu PF is only talking and they are acting.”