The Bulawayo City Council says the impending demolition exercise of illegal structures in the local authority’s Killarney suburb and Ngozi Mine is different from that in Chitungwiza and Epworth in Harare because Bulawayo has a lot of temporary structures that cannot pass as buildings.
Local Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo recently advised the Bulawayo City Council to first provide alternative accommodation for affected people, in case of any demolitions.
Bulawayo mayor Martin Moyo says the squatters at Killarney are hoping that they may receive free housing, as what happened to their predecessors in the area, when the International Migration Organization and UNICEF built some houses at Robert Sinyoka in the outskirts of the city where they were resettled.
Moyo says the local authority is not obliged to resettle the squatters.
