MDC-T distances itself from houses demolitions, accuse Zanu PF

The MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu has distanced his party from the on going houses demolitions in Harare saying Zanu PF was responsible for the inhuman move.

"The Constitution of Zimbabwe provides for the fundamental human right of freedom from arbitrary eviction. Section 74 of the Constitution provides that no person may be evicted from their home, or have their home demolished, without an order of court made after considering all the relevant circumstances," Gutu said.

"In the past few days, some residents of Harare had their houses demolished by agents acting on the instructions of the Zanu PF government. Several houses that were built along the Airport Road in Harare were demolished. The MDC understands that the people who had built the demolished houses belonged to members of a Zanu PF-controlled housing co-operative society known as Nyakavanhu Housing Co-operative."

He said it is always very painful and distressing to witness the demolition of houses belonging to people who would have worked extremely hard in order to provide shelter for their families. He said the right to shelter is indeed, a basic and fundamental human right.

"As a social democratic political party, the MDC will never, ever condone the indiscriminate, illegal and insensitive demolition of any citizen of Zimbabwe's place of residence. As such, we call upon all local authorities in the country to exercise restraint and circumspection when it comes to the decision to demolish houses. More importantly, no house should ever be demolished without strictly taking into consideration the provisions of Section 74 of the Constitution," said Gutu.

"Because of rampant and unmitigated corruption, many urban centres in Zimbabwe are now facing the scourge of greedy and criminal land barons. Most, if not all, these unscrupulous land barons are senior members of the faction-ridden Zanu PF political party. These greedy land barons have illegally parcelled out municipal and in some cases, even State land, to unsuspecting members of the public."

He said members of the public are being made to pay huge amounts of money to these greedy and corrupt land barons who would then, illegally parcel out land for housing development.

Gutu said most local authorities, particularly the Harare City Council and the Bulawayo City Council, have literally lost all control of municipal housing land to these greedy but politically, very powerful Zanu PF land barons.

"As a law-abiding and peace-loving political party, the MDC also calls upon the country's law enforcement agencies to ruthlessly clamp down on the illegal activities of these Zanu PF land barons. We would also urge all our councillors in the local authorities that we control to ensure that no municipal land is illegally allocated to any land baron or any other individual for that matter," he said.

"Sanity and order should be allowed to prevail in all our urban centres. We cannot allow and/or tolerate a situation whereby people are illegally allocated residential stands. In some cases, residential stands have been allocated even in open spaces designated for recreational use such as public parks. We have also experienced a situation where residential stands have been illegally allocated in wetlands; thus leading to serious ecological challenges such as the lowering of the water table as well as the depletion and/or extinction of natural plants and animals."

Gutu said as part of the holistic harmonisation of the country's urban housing policy, the Zanu PF government should move very swiftly to enact a new and appropriate Urban Councils Act to overhaul the old Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29 : 15).

"The Constitution of Zimbabwe was unanimously adopted in May 2013,but almost three years down the line, there are more than four (4)hundred pieces of legislation that are yet to be harmonised with the country's Constitution. We still do not have formally legislated metropolitan councils in Harare and Bulawayo. As a result, these two big cities still have ceremonial mayors whose day to day functions and activities are essentially directed by the central government through the Minister of Local Government," said Gutu.

"The Zanu PF government must be compelled to respect the provisions of the country's Constitution. The Constitution of Zimbabwe is the supreme law of the land. Section 2 (1) of the Constitution clearly and unambiguously states that the Constitution is the supreme law of Zimbabwe and any law, practice, custom or conduct inconsistent with it is invalid to the extent of the inconsistency."