Demolitions: Where is the Govt?

Disheartening pictures of bulldozers razing down people’s homes are circulating on various social media platforms and they also made it to the front pages of newspapers Wednesday.
An angry citizenry is throwing tantrums.
We say tantrums because no matter how loud they shout, demonstrate or petition Government and city authorities – their cries fall on deaf ears.
Instead, they are blamed for not doing due diligence when seeking housing stands.
Yesterday’s demolitions in Budiriro are not the first this year, in fact, between council and private owners, it is hard to keep track of how many people have lost their beautifully built homes, some already completed, fully fixed with amenities and electric supply.
Thousands of families have lost their homes countrywide in recent years, and millions in money invested in land purchase and building materials lost.
Apparently those responsible for the demolitions choose the worst of times, the rainy season. Furniture is immediately lost to weather elements while thieves help themselves to the rest of the belongings.
As for the children and their parents, suddenly turned into squatters – the icy rain ravages them and the cold night weather gives them disease. Mosquitos also throw a party.
But by then, these affected people have become yesterday’s news. Social media is onto something else and Government is grappling with the day-to-day problems of a sick economy.
No one stops to wonder what becomes of the affected people – mentally, physically, financially and socially.
Is it not Government’s duty to protect its people? To provide shelter for its citizens, something it has dismally failed to do in the ever growing urban centres.
These industrious people try by all means to provide for themselves by paying for housing stands, sometimes in installments, spending over a decade contributing to what they would have been made to believe to be a legitimate process.
No one comes to stop the process when they are allocated stands that are sometimes well-serviced. They quickly build to cut down on rental expenses, and during the process no one comes to stop them.
It only becomes an illegal settlement years after settling in, having made sacrifices and investments in making a home.
Since Government is failing in its obligation to provide decent housing; why can’t it then protect the decent settlements created? These are people’s homes being torn down, decades of hard work, the primary shelter for so many children.
Where are the courts when they are needed for protection? Can’t Government find a better alternative, say when construction has been done on land belonging to a private owner, give them alternative land or compensation.
The situation is blamed on land barons and ‘rogue elements’ in the ruling party or opposition. Why are those responsible not being arrested and convicted? Why are they allowed to stay in beautiful houses with their children built from money acquired from the sale of illegal land?
Why not repossess their assets and compensate the poor who are forced into homelessness? Nhau/Indaba