Some of the evicted families had been living in the houses since 1984. When The Standard news crew visited the area recently, property worth thousands of dollars was scattered all over the place. However, some evictees had asked friends and relatives to accommodate them.
One of the victims, Peter Kamupupwe, said he was shocked to see rowdy Zanu PF supporters, who accompanied the “purported new owners”, ordering them out of their houses without any notice from the local authority.
Kamupupwe, who stayed in Cold Stream high-density suburb, said he did not get any benefits when the mine closed after working for more than 20 years.
“All I had was that house,” he said. “But they have taken it.” The former miner, whose health is failing, said his house was taken over by the daughter of a Zanu PF official in the province, Moffat Marashwa, who is also a war veteran.
“My house was taken over by Oripah Marashwa, the daughter of the former councillor of ward 8 in Cold Stream,” said Kamupupwe.“My property was removed by Oripah with the help of Zanu PF members.”
Another victim, Benjamin Kaitano, said they were evicted despite an agreement in his original contract stating that a sitting tenant would get first preference when buying the houses in the event that the mine closed.
Former workers’ union housing project secretary, Lawrence Mlambo, accused Zanu PF officials of being greedy. “Zanu PF members politicised the Golden Kopje houses issue,” said Mlambo.
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“This is a purely labour issue. Zanu PF gurus like Marashwa are using political power to override courts. These former workers were deprived of their benefits and pensions.”
Another resident, who did not want to be named, said what pained most people in Chinhoyi was that those who took over wanted to lease the houses for their financial benefit.
But Marashwa defended her daughter, saying Oripah got the house because she had been on the council’s housing waiting list for a long time.He said those evicted were cowards who refused to join others when they were fighting with mine owners over the houses.
“Those people are cowards, they refused to join us when we were fighting the mine owners over the houses,” he said. “Now they want to benefit after doing nothing.”
There are 150 Golden Kopje houses in Cold Stream suburb, 66 in Chikonohono and 10 in the low-density suburb of Mzari.
Housing issue politicised: Gotami
Housing committee chairman, Simeon Gotami, said they were very much concerned with the plight of the former mine workers. He said the issue had been politicised, forcing them to refer the matter to Chinhoyi MP Stewart Garadhi and Chinhoyi mayor Busani Dube-Marumahoko.
Efforts to get a comment from Garadhi and Dube-Marumahoko were fruitless. The former workers once wrote a letter of complaint to President Robert Mugabe. But Chief Secretary for President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, wrote back saying he had instructed the housing ministry to deal with the matter.
