via Mugabe orders halt to house demolitions 28/10/2014
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe has urged local authorities to legalise illegal structures built by residents on land which the urban councils insist was not meant for any housing settlements.
The veteran leader was addressing the two houses of parliament during the official opening of the Second Session of Zimbabwe’s eighth Parliament on Tuesday.
Mugabe said his government had plans to avail 313,283 residential stands to homeless citizens countrywide as part of efforts to reduce the current housing backlog.
This would be complemented by a revision of the current astronomical costs of acquiring housing stands.
“Government also expects local authorities to comply with the guidelines and procedures for regularising some of the illegal settlements which have sprouted mostly around major urban centres,” Mugabe said.
This comes after beleaguered residents, through their representative groups, recently wrote to him asking him to intervene after Harare and its surrounding towns dispatched bulldozers to raze down some of the structures.
The First Lady, Grace Mugabe, has also warned during her recent countrywide rallies that the demolitions would provoke unrest among “angry” Zimbabweans.
Meanwhile, during his address Mugabe also moved to appease locals who could have been short-changed by their insurers when the country ditched its local currency for the more stable US dollar in 2009.
“Our people could have been prejudiced in terms of their pensions and insurance in the changeover from the Zimbabwe dollar to the United States dollar currency,” he said.
“Government is therefore launching a commission of inquiry to establish the processes and methods used to convert pensions and insurance policy values from the Zimbabwean to the United States dollars.
“The findings of the commission and the recommendations thereof should assist in restoring public confidence in the local pensions and insurance industry.”
Among these was the colonial style two-kilometre-drive on a black Rolls Royce vintage car with an open top in a slow moving procession of cars and police horses from State House to Parliament building.
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