Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Housing and Social amenities Minister Daniel Garwe has said houses built on riverbanks and on wetlands across the country will have to be demolished and local authorities and land developers who were in charge of parceling out land to those residents are supposed to compensate them, The Herald reports.
Garwe said this after touring houses and other structures built on wetlands and riverbanks in Gweru:
Under the new concept where we want to relocate people, they will be predominantly high rise buildings. We are following the policy on densification and these people will be relocated to those areas not for free.
They will pay but where they had built houses if the local authority was responsible for the allocation of the land on riverbanks and wetlands, it takes full responsibility of compensating those people.
If it’s a private developer-cum land baron, that land baron should compensate the people. Government has no apologies to make on that.
Midlands Provincial and Devolution Minister Larry Mavima said they were already identifying the structures built on wetlands and on river banks in his province:
As a province, we are up to the task. We started with identifying these illegal structures but we are not a cruel Government. As Government we will make sure that we will leave no stone unturned and those responsible for duping people will restitute the affected but at the same time, we will not just demolish structures without identifying new places to relocate the affected.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga a few weeks ago said land barons parceling out illegal land to unsuspecting home seekers were going to be made to compensate the home seekers.
More: The Herald
