Martha Nyarota, a young mother in her early 20s, screams from a distance, desperately trying to get the attention of journalists.
BY MOSES MATENGA
Her six-day-old baby, Cute, is strapped to her back as she eventually gets to tell her story.
She and fellow settlers in Harare’s Glen View 4 suburb have for days spent several nights taking turns to keep night vigils to stop the Harare City Council from demolishing their houses.
Amid the din coming from the crowd demonstrating against Harare City Council, workers who were on a mission to raze down their homes last week, Nyarota tells her story.
She has been sleeping in the open with her baby ever since she gave birth.
“What wrong did we do? Aren’t we also entitled to human rights like everyone else in the country? Why are we having our houses demolished?” she asks as she puts across her point.
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“We are now sleeping on the road every day because we fear they[council workers] can come anytime.
“We have gone for weeks now sleeping outside because we can’t afford to have them destroy our houses.”
Scores of women protested against council’s decision to demolish their houses under the Dare Rechimurenga housing co-operative in Glen View 4, situated next to the council-owned Ingwe Farm.
“We have not slept for weeks now ever since we heard about the plot to demolish our houses,” Nyarota said.
“Why expose our children to this? We invested a lot of money in these houses.
“Some of us have husbands who were fired from work and decided to put all their money into building homes and now council wants to pull them down. This is not fair.”
Another woman who appeared to be Nyarota’s friend chipped in, saying the demolitions had left them desperate.
“We are afraid and ask ourselves what will happen to our children,” she said.
“We took bank loans, others used lifetime investments to build these houses and they want to demolish them just like that. It’s sad.” As Nyarota and her friend spoke, another group of women, youths and men sang revolutionary songs while chanting Zanu PF slogans.
They threatened to beat up council officials who wanted to demolish their houses.
“We won’t tolerate that nonsense. We will not allow them to do this. This is not a paddock as they claim and former town clerk Tendai Mahachi blessed this settlement,” said Peter Siziba, a local resident.
The journalists were taken on a tour of the settlement by residents who were at pains to justify their presence at the place.
They had chased away council workers who had come to destroy the structures. They vowed they would rather die than let their homes be razed down.
Wurayayi Gwenere, a member of one of the four co-operatives, said children were getting stressed at an early age.
“They can’t comprehend the stress they see us going through as parents,” he said.
“They don’t know why we are living in perpetual fear like this and sleeping out to protect our houses.”
More than 460 houses have been built by the co-operatives in the Glen View 4 area.
Residents said even the MDC-T councillor for the area Tungamirai Madzokere had approved the settlement.
“Are they not working on the papers now because Mahachi is no longer there?” asked one of the residents.
Council workers reportedly started visiting the settlement over two weeks ago in the wee hours of the morning strategising on how to destroy the structures.
After their initial visits, residents mobilised for all-night vigils to guard their structures, vowing that no one would be allowed into the area.
Men have also claimed to have stopped going to work to keep guard while others said they would not go for holidays fearing the same.
Zanu PF supporters, soldiers, police officers and civil servants are among residents of this area.
Roads leading to the settlement have been blocked from any unknown visitor with youths armed with logs denying suspected council workers access. Two front-end loaders were denied entry, forcing the drivers to turn back.
“We are registered co-operatives here and we have our papers in order,” said one of the residents.
“Even the former town clerk Mahachi once came here and he told us to go ahead with our projects as long as we respected the boundaries with council’s Ingwe Farm.
“We have letters signed by the acting town clerk Josephine Ncube and several correspondences from the local authority.”
However, council said it would not be deterred by anyone from discharging its duties, setting the stage for a potentially bruising fight.
Hundreds of houses have been demolished in Harare, with women and children being the hardest hit.
Most of the people affected are Zanu PF activists who benefitted from the ruling party linked housing co-operatives when the party was campaigning ahead of the July 31 2013 harmonised elections.
