Council spares illegal structures

News
THE BULAWAYO City Council has said it has no immediate plans of demolishing illegal structures in the city without first finding alternative accommodation for the affected individuals.

THE BULAWAYO City Council has said it has no immediate plans of demolishing illegal structures in the city without first finding alternative accommodation for the affected individuals. MTHANDAZO NYONI OWN CORRESPONDENT

The government embarked on a demolition exercise targeting illegally-built houses and tuck-shops in Ruwa and Damofalls in Harare and warned that the programme would expand to all urban centres countrywide.

Bulawayo mayor Martin Moyo told Southern Eye on Wednesday that council currently had no intention of demolishing illegal structures.

“As council, we do not have such a programme of demolishing illegal structures in the city,” Moyo said.

“We do not even talk or think about the issue.

“Those people in Killarney are just squatting in the open and we are still looking at ways of relocating them, not destroying their structures.

“Just imagine, if you destroy those structures where would those people go?” he added.

Bulawayo has a number of illegally-built structures mushrooming on the outskirts of the city where new settlements have sprouted.

Most illegal structures in the city can be found in Killarney and Ngozi Mine, a refuse dumping site next to Cowdray Park.

The government embarked on a massive demolition exercise destroying all illegally-built structures widely known as “Operation Murambatsvina”, which left more than 700 000 people homeless.

Related Topics