Zimbabwe’s Mugabe defends demolition policy

HARARE (Reuters) – Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on
Thursday defended his government’s two-month-old crackdown on
illegal structures, saying it should be seen as reconstruction,
not destruction.

Speaking on state television, he said the clean-up, which
aid groups say has made an estimated 300,000 people homeless in
poor townships, was aimed at regeneration.

“We are constructing brand new houses, mending those which
require to be mended, where it is necessary to destroy some.
But the thrust is a reconstruction one a positive thrust to
rebuild things…that’s how we should have done it,” Mugabe
said.

“But it was seen by others as a callous exercise. They said
we were destroying homes and not shacks. We were destroying
shacks and attachments to houses that were built to exploit the
homeless ones.”

A few weeks ago, bulldozers demolished structures in
Harare’s poor townships which the government said had been
built without permission.

The government has said the campaign, called “Operation
Restore Order,” was intended to clean up cities and help end
crime and illegal trading in foreign currency and scarce
commodities. It has been extended to more affluent areas.

Mugabe said the government was moving swiftly to provide
houses for those affected by the operation.

“Let’s move as quickly as we can, so that people can see
that in areas where land was subdivided into plots…houses
have now arisen,” said Mugabe.

“There will be joy on the part of those who did not have
homes, joy on the part of those who had homes which could not
accommodate fully their families. Let’s bring about that joy
and we shall erase this image of a Zimbabwe that is in ruins.”

The crackdown took place against the backdrop of a
deepening economic crisis marked by acute shortages of foreign
currency, fuel and food.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980,
is accused by opponents and critics of running down one of
Africa’s most promising economies through a series of unsound
policies, including land seizures.

Mugabe denies the charges and says the economy is the
victim of sabotage by opponents of his forcible redistribution
of white-owned farms to blacks.