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Farirai Machivenyika Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT has been urged to be sensitive to people’s needs before it embarks on the demolition of structures that were illegally built on public land in Harare and its satellite towns of Ruwa and Chitungwiza. The MDC-T-led council in Ruwa has been demolishing illegal structures with the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing saying it will stand guided by its audit report before acting on illegal structures.

Development experts yesterday said the Government should link the demolition of structures to the provision of alternative accommodation to the affected families.

‘‘Zanu-PF, the party that informs Government, does not have a policy of throwing people into the streets in the rainy season.
‘‘Our position is that any demolition should be lawful, and because of that no house or shack should be demolished without a court order,’’ said a senior Zanu-PF official who preferred anonymity for fear of breaching protocol.

Council, he said, should first deal with incomplete and uninhabited illegal structures before tackling habited ones which should only be demolished in the presence of alternative accommodation for the affected families.

Urban planning expert Mr Percy Toriro concurred, saying while the law prohibited construction of structures, especially on public land without due process, it was also important that responsible authorities be sensitive to the people’s needs in the changing socio-economic environment.

“There are two issues to consider when you deal with people’s accommodation. There are planning issues to consider and there are also moral issues.

“When you look at the law there is what we call the ‘letter’ of the law that deals with what or what not to do and then the ‘spirit’ of the law which deals with what the law wants to achieve.

“However, while it is important that we have to keep the spirit of the law and have clean, orderly cities with the right amenities, the authorities also need to be responsive and sensitive to the needs of the residents.

“In the past years, housing delivery has been low, so the authorities should also be sensitive to the changing socio-economic environment that has also affected the people during that time,” Mr Toriro said.

The Combined Harare Residents Association said statements to demolish houses have not been made with equal emphasis on providing alternative accommodation.

“The important consideration for any household is to ensure that their family has a roof over their heads, in addition to water, food and clothing. Recent policy pronouncements in this regard are driven more by prerogatives of legality or otherwise, rather than fundamental human needs for shelter,” reads CHRA’s statement.

The association also said the councils could have acted on the illegal structures earlier rather than wait for people to spend their resources and then demolish the houses.

“For more than 10 years local council administrators watched while poor urban residents struggled to invest their hard earned money into simple houses on the fringes of the cities. No action was taken.

“The ministry of Local Government then sprang into action after completion of the building structures. Could they not have acted swiftly, earlier, before these investments by the poor were made, out of a spirit of empathy and responsibility for these poor people?” CHRA said in the statement.

The organisation bemoaned the lack of consultation between the authorities and affected people on compensation and alternative accommodation.

“Procedurally, policy administrators discuss with people who should be affected, or who should benefit from intended policies. There should be dialogue which covers details of relocation, compensation and associated costs. Granted that the ministry of Local Government considers its targets as criminals, they most probably found justification not to consult. But then there are also serious social and political risks associated with this course of action,” reads the statement.

Construction of buildings in urban areas is mainly regulated under the Regional Town and Country Planning Act promulgated during the colonial era and Statutory Instrument 109 of 1979 when people were settled along racial lines.

The illegal sanctions imposed on the country made it difficult for Government to provide accommodation to ordinary citizens resulting in the ballooning of the housing waiting list across the country.

In its election manifesto Zanu-PF acknowledged the huge housing backlog in the country standing at 1,25 million due to the illegal sanctions, settlement policies of the colonial era and rural to urban migration.

“The Zanu-PF Government will embark on a vigorous housing programme to address the housing backlog of 1,25 million using financial resources from assets to be unlocked from the indigenisation of foreign-owned companies,” the manifesto reads.

The revolutionary party said it would use proceeds from the US$7,2 billion to be unlocked from indigenised companies to fund the construction of approximately 250 000 low income houses and 2 500 factory shells and vendor and flea markets.

The Government, under its economic blueprint to be launched soon, also pledged to provide land for housing and embarking on aggressive housing programmes.