Squatter settlement - haven for armed robbers, prostitutes, boozers

THE sight of children scratching around in the foul smelling and endless piles of garbage looking for broken metals to make toys and anything that can help them pass time is a signature of night-mares for people living in the slums.

On the other side behind the structures comprising pole, plastics, scrap metal and pieces of broken asbestos sheets sit a group-of men and women exchanging a cup of an illicit traditional brew popularly known as tototo.

They are unperturbedly watching three middle-aged women meting out instant justice on a man they accused of refusing to pay their friend for sexual services rendered to him.

The above highlights at one of the squatter settlements are typical of the squalid environments surrounding illegal settlements which are sprouting in Bulawayo at an alarming rate.

These illegal settlements like Ngozi Mine and the ones near Killarney and Centenary Park among others, have undoubtedly become a breeding ground for armed robbers, drug pushers, prostitutes and boozers.

There is no doubt that the sprouting of illegal settlements and slums is a risk to public health, morality and A great strain to the available but in short supply facilities like water, electricity and sewers.

A visit by this publication to Ngozi Mine squatter settlement and the one near Centenary Park showed that life at these illegal dwellings was painful and miserable with no running water, power, sewer systems and rotting waste dumped by people, a common sight everywhere.
Further investigations on how the dwellers were making a living revealed sad tales of prostitution, drug pushing, and theft with old women who seemed to have retired from the oldest profession surviving by selling food stuffs and tototo.

Some of the inhabitants who spoke to this reporter expressed dissatisfaction at the squalid conditions at these illegal settlements they call homes saying the slums were harbouring criminals and providing a haven for immoral activities like prostitution and drug pushing.

"The lives of people here is pathetic and we arc living by the grace of God, everyday now takes care of itself.

"The conditions here are absolutely horrid and it is not a secret that we are sustaining ourselves by selling drugs, foodstuffs, tototo with young women and girls selling their bodies to raise money to buy food," said a woman who identified herself as Mrs Phiri.

"The situation here is worse because there is no electricity, running water and other hospitable conditions suitable for human habitation and there is no doubt that these illegal settlements are havens for criminals, drug lords and other undesirable elements in society like prostitution and boozing.

"We are appealing to responsible authorities to give us land so that we can erect permanent structures which can also be equipped with running water and electricity," said Edson Bwanya of Ngozi Mine.

Further investigations revealed that the unlawful residents were mostly pensioners, unemployed families who were evicted from their lodgings after they failed to pay rentals or orphans who were also disowned by relatives upon the death of their parents.

Commenting on the sprouting of the illegal structures, a local land developer and project manager of the Zimbabwe Housing Projects Trust (ZHPT) Tendai Charuka, said the problem can only be alleviated if the City Fathers provided vast tracts of undeveloped land to land developers who can build more and affordable houses for homeless residents.

He added that the country was witnessing a dramatic increase in housing demand due to the rapid growth in urban population which saw most home-seekers failing to acquire houses largely due to low-incomes.

"These squatter settlements are sprouting as a result of a serious housing problem facing the city and this problem which seems to be growing at an alarming rate can only be eased if the City Fathers provide undeveloped land to land developers.

"These land developers will build houses for the unemployed and mostly for low income earners, the majority of whom are home seekers who have no cash to buy the expensive stands", said Charuka.

However, during his address at the 2012 annual review recently Bulawayo Mayor Councillor Thaba Moyo admitted that housing was a thorn in the flesh and indicated that the city was working hard to arrest the situation.