Housing scandal

By Tichaona Sibanda
9 September, 2005

It has emerged that most victims of Operation Murambatsvina in Bulawayo will not benefit from a new housing scheme launched by government soon after the clean-up exercise ended.

Over a million people were made homeless during the operation and following the worldwide condemnation of the operation, government promised that it would construct houses to accommodate them.

An investigation by our correspondent in Bulawayo, Themba Nkosi revealed that 98 percent of the victims will not be allocated the houses because of the high price being asked for the deposit.

Government has built more than 150 houses under Operation Hlalani Kuhle/Garikai in Bulawayo, but most of them have been allocated to members of the police, army and prison services.

Nkosi told us that members of Mugabe's security forces can afford the deposits but not the victims of the clean-up exercise. Most of the victims are still homeless and many are destitute and harbour deep resentment towards the government for deceiving them. To add insult to injury, government has been allocating stands that are not serviced.