Grace Mugabe orders destruction of 100 homes in Mazowe

By Lance Guma
08 March 2010

First Lady Grace Mugabe is launching her own version of Operation Murambatsvina (drive out the filth), this time targeting 100 homes for destruction in a Mazowe suburb. Her aides claim she wants to make way for the expansion of an orphanage.

According to the weekly Zimbabwe Standard newspaper the residents have already been given notices to vacate their premises. Those affected said they bought their stands as far back as 1998 from the Mazowe Rural District Council. Both those who managed to finish their houses and those who were still building have all been asked to leave.

Mugabe’s first wife Sally was renowned for her work in helping disadvantaged children and orphans. Grace on the other hand has built a reputation as The First Shopper, going overseas and splashing out extravagantly. Her motives for displacing the residents in Mazowe have naturally triggered suspicions. Although compensation has been promised one resident summed up the general feeling when he said ‘Sally Mugabe never invaded other people's properties to help poor children. She (Grace) must be up to something.’

A middle aged woman who spoke to the Zimbabwe Standard said Mugabe’s wife is turning them into ‘economic orphans to make way for other orphans.’ Other victims questioned why Grace would select an area inhabited by people if she was a kind person. Mashonaland Central Governor, Martin Dinha, confirmed that their province had offered Grace the land so that an orphanage and secondary school could be built.

Meanwhile the newspaper asked Dinha if the centre would take children whose parents were murdered in the June 2008 elections and he said he was not aware of any children orphaned due to violence. He also claimed there was ‘inter-party violence which has since been addressed with the coming in of the global political agreement.’

A few reminders for the governor would be MDC activist Gift Tandare who was shot dead by police during an opposition rally. He left behind a wife and 3 children. Another MDC activist to leave behind a wife and 3 children was Tonderai Ndira. He was abducted in front of his children by 10 men armed with AK47 rifles. He was later found dead, his body decomposing. His family was only able to recognize him by his distinctive ring and bangles. Rights groups estimate over at least 200 opposition activist were murdered in the 2008 elections, with many tens of thousands tortured.