Zanu PF was up to its usual wiles in the run up to the recent Norton by-election, this time “handing over” 5 000 stands and promising 4 000 more to youths and other ruling party supporters.
news in depth BY TAPIWA ZIVIRA
But in a surprise turn of events, the party, which had already started an early celebration of what seemed like an obvious victory, lost the seat to independent candidate Temba Mliswa who had the backing of the main opposition MDC-T.
As Zanu PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere licked his wounds, war veterans’ leader Chris Mutsvangwa, who lost the Norton seat after he was expelled by the ruling party, celebrated the loss through a strongly-worded opinion article.
Mutsvangwa chided Kasukuwere, who is also Local government minister and responsible for dishing out the stands, calling him the “devil’s gift” to Zanu PF.
Dishing out stands to woo the urban electorate is not a new trick in Zanu PF’s bag.
It has in the past largely worked from the time Zanu PF established stands on the shoulders of Harare, creating constituencies like Harare South, which has repeatedly been won by the party.
As a result, a number of housing co-operatives are tightly controlled by Zanu PF through intimidation and threats of eviction as part of the party’s bid to increase its support in the urban areas, which are largely dominated by the opposition MDC-T.
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However, with the 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe nearing the twilight of his political career and having failed to create a succession plan, jockeying for positions in Zanu PF has continually threatened to tear the party along factional lines, a trend that has spilled into the control of housing co-operatives.
There are now two distinctive factions in Zanu PF. The G40 faction is reportedly aligned to First Lady Grace Mugabe and comprises the likes of Higher education minister Jonathan Moyo, Kasukuwere and other young turks.
The faction is tussling for power with another group that is backing vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa in the race to succeed Mugabe.
The two rival factions are reportedly battling to retain control of the housing co-operatives as these are key to the ruling party’s hold in urban areas and work effectively as terror bases during election time.
The fight for control, which has seen harassment, demolition of houses, beatings and evictions of rival faction members, lawsuits and legal action among other things, has taken centre stage, mainly at Ushewokunze and Eyecourt Farms.
Last week there were a series of targeted evictions reportedly perpetrated by the G40 faction which is wrestling to control the areas.
At Ushewokunze, the factional fights for the control of the co-operative have been ongoing since last year, with the most recent being over allegations of corruption and land grabbing by a clique allegedly aligned to Harare South MP, Shadreck Mashayamombe who is believed to be a member of G40.
Although he has previously denied involvement, Mashayamombe is allegedly behind the faction led by former chairman, Ezekiel Karimanzira who reportedly lost the chairmanship to Fungai Nyarota. Nyarota is believed to be in Mnangagwa’s faction that is supported by war veterans.
Nyarota and other members aligned to the Mnangagwa faction were reportedly attacked by a group aligned to Mashayamombe last month and they made a report at Borrowdale police station.
They accused police officers at the Waterfalls Police Station of siding with some senior party officials in the G40 faction and ignoring their repeated reports of harassment.
Nyarota and other members of the co-operative were then reportedly served with eviction papers from CFI Holdings, which is in a legal dispute with the co-operative over the ownership of the land.
The battle has taken the legal route, with Nyarota and others challenging their eviction in court.
In an earlier interview with The Standard, Nyarota accused Mashayamombe of fanning violence in a bid to reinstate the former chairman and get the housing co–operative into the hands of G40.
Mashayamombe denied involvement.
In addition to the existing co-operatives, in the past year there has been a growing number of informal settlements, the bulk of which have been on undesignated land and lack the requisite water and sanitation facilities.
In Harare South — the area that borders Masvingo Road and Chitungwiza — there has been continued expansion of the residential area, apparently without being serviced.
Some stands have spilled into the Granville cemetery, commonly referred to as Mbudzi, with low-cost one and two-roomed houses lining up on the edge of the graveyard in a style reflective of informal settlements.
Without proper road infrastructure, water sources and sewer systems, the residents of the new settlements often end up digging up wells and constructing pit latrines, putting themselves at risk of contracting diseases.
But those who give out the land appear unconcerned about the health hazard.
In what exposes the partisan and unprocedural allocation of stands, Zanu PF secretary for youths Kudzai Chipanga, while handing over the 5 000 stands to youths in Norton, threatened to immediately repossess them if the youths ditched the ruling party.
“Let me tell you that we are giving you the stands, but if you ditch the party, you will return to where you came from,” he said.
Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni said in many cases, the city is not consulted as should happen during the development of new residential stands.
“Every piece of land should fall under some town planning authority, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no town planning involved in some of these ‘rally’ stands. We hear it on the news,” he said, in apparent reference to top Zanu PF officials’ public promises to provide stands to loyal followers.
Local Government ministry permanent secretary George Mlilo, said government had already started the process of providing 100 000 stands for government workers.
MDC-T shadow local government minister Eddie Cross has repeatedly said plans to dole out stands are not aimed at improving the lives of unemployed youths or landless Zimbabweans, but is a politically-motivated attempt to get votes in the 2018 elections.
Mugabe has recently been complaining about alleged corruption in the allocation of housing stands to Zanu PF youths.
The government has also in the past spearheaded controversial housing schemes, including the so-called Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle scheme, which was launched after the infamous Operation Murambatsvina where nearly a million people were displaced by the clean-up campaign.
