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violence, a party Politburo member Cde Tendai Savanhu said recently.

Cde Savanhu made the remarks in an interview refuting allegations by Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Masunda that he was organising youths to disturb the rehabilitation of Mbare hostels and the construction of town houses at Tsiga in Mbare. On two consecutive occasions, Mr Masunda alleged that Cde Savanhu and Zanu-PF Harare provincial chairman, Cde Jimu Kunaka, were sponsoring violence and disturbing the implementation of the US$5 million Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation urban renewal projects in Mbare.

He said Cde Savanhu and Cde Kunaka were “barking against a wrong tree” since the project was apolitical.
He said should Harare fully account for the money, the foundation was prepared to put in more money.

But Cde Savanhu said the urban renewal project in Mbare was started by the Harare Commission in which he was a member.
“We actually had a tour and noticed that the people were not living properly. We did not have the money to do the project but we had a standing resolution that work should be done. The Masunda council has simply taken over from where we left and for him to suggest that we are playing politics is misplaced. We are not against the project,” he said.

Cde Savanhu said as stakeholders in Mbare, Zanu-PF had a legitimate right to point areas that needed rectification.
“We are against him bringing in people from other suburbs to take over houses in Mbare. The Mbare project should benefit the people of Mbare,” he said.

He said to show his sincerity in helping the people of Mbare, Mr Masunda should incorporate housing co-operatives in the suburb that were struggling to provide housing.
Cde Savanhu said the people of Mbare would never mobilise against development, adding that if council was genuinely in there for the people, it should be removing the mounds of garbage that littered the streets of Mbare, repair the roads and provide street lighting.

“Again, no one is stopping them from providing the services but nothing is happening,” he said.
Asked to comment on Cde Savanhu’s reaction to his statement, Mr Masunda, said he was “immensely relieved to hear” the sentiments of Cde Savanhu. “I will convey the good news to our project team, which is led by

Mr James Chiyangwa, the deputy director of housing and community services in conjunction with the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation and Dialogue on Shelter,” he said.