Police officers in Zimbabwe will be given houses under the government’s ambitious housing-construction programme, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Friday.
Deputy Police Commissioner Barbara Mandizha said in a speech to police officers in Harare that the provision of accommodation to members of the force headquartered at the main Morris depot ”remains a daunting task”, the report said.
”The organisation will, however, make efforts to ensure that its members benefit from the government housing schemes like Operation Garikai [Settle and Prosper],” Mandizha was quoted as saying.
President Robert Mugabe’s government launched Operation Garikai at the end of June following a wave of shack demolitions that left at least 700 000 Zimbabweans homeless and jobless, according to United Nations estimates.
It is not clear how many police officers lost their homes during the demolitions, which sparked international condemnation.
Government ministers have promised that hundreds of thousands of homes will be built in the next four years, but critics say the authorities do not have the money to fund construction on such a massive scale.
There are also concerns that civil servants and members of the armed forces will be given priority over other home seekers. — Sapa-DPA