Local Government, Urban and Rural Development minister Ignatius Chombo who is also Zanu PF’s secretary for land, would not discuss the issue of the many illegal settlements across the country and the risk being faced by the settlers.
“The issue we should be discussing is the callousness and lack of feeling shown by Sunway City,” Chombo said on Thursday.
“United Nations regulations and even our own laws say you cannot simply evict people without an alternative. Why did they have to wait until the start of the rainy season?”
Chombo denied that the evictions that took place at Arnold Farm in Mazowe, where 50 families that had been allocated stands by the rural authority, were meant to pave way for the First Lady, Grace Mugabe’s projects.
UN Habitat Programme manager for Zimbabwe, Peter Mutavati, said, “We are not encouraging lawlessness, but our reasoning is in line with UN protocols and the Habitat Agenda, which outlaws destruction of people’s homes without alternatives.”
An estimated two million people are on the housing waiting list countrywide.
