A Zimbabwean Cabinet minister has condemned as ”sub-standard” a model of a home built by the United Nations for victims of a government clean-up blitz that left hundreds of thousands homeless.
The government-run Herald on Wednesday quoted Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo as saying that the UN was told to ”follow set guidelines, but they went ahead and built this sub-standard building”.
”This structure is not permanent. We want permanent houses for our people,” said Chombo during a visit to a camp where the UN has built an example of the brick-and-asbestos house.
Chombo’s remarks came two weeks after UN relief aid coordinator Jan Egeland met President Robert Mugabe, where the long-time Zimbabwean leader snubbed a UN offer of tents for victims of Operation Murambatsvina.
The demolition campaign, which the government said was aimed at ridding the country from crime and grime, left about 700 000 people homeless earlier this year, according to UN figures.
Chombo said the money spent on asbestos walling could have been used to buy bricks, the paper said.
”Comrade Chombo described the house … as below human dignity, saying the people who designed the structure were guided by a ‘this-is-good-for-Africa’ attitude,” the Herald said.
Mugabe has said through his spokesperson that ”tents just don’t augur well with our culture”, adding that ”if the UN does not have enough money for permanent shelter, let the little they have be used to augment what the government already has”.
Egeland toured areas razed during a government ”urban renewal” campaign in May and expressed dismay at the poor living conditions in the demolished areas, offering UN help.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of severe political and economic crisis, with about 80% of the population living under the poverty threshold. More than 70% are jobless and inflation is running at more than 400%. — Sapa-AFP