Local Government and Public Works Minister Daniel Garwe told the nation recently that no government law authorizes house demolitions, a statement that has ignited fierce debate over who will be held accountable for the more than 16,500 structures flattened during Operation Chenesa over the past two months.
According to Bulawayo24 News, Garwe declared at a press conference that the state is protecting citizens rather than destroying their homes. Yet bulldozers have spent weeks reducing family houses to rubble across Harare and beyond, and thousands of Zimbabweans now stand beside the wreckage of their life savings.
The legal question nobody wants to answer
By the Minister's own logic, the destruction of a family's brick-and-mortar home without statutory authority is a crime. Section 140 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act defines the intentional and unlawful destruction of another person's property as malicious damage to property.
So who is going to be arrested? Will the police handcuff the municipal enforcement officers who directed the earthmovers? Will charges be brought against Messenger of Court officials, bulldozer operators, or the Harare City Council directors who signed off on the raids? And will the families whose homes were reduced to dust ever see compensation?
The honest answer is that nobody in an official uniform will see the inside of a holding cell. That silence exposes the contradiction at the heart of the government's messaging.
What the law actually says about demolitions
Garwe knows full well that laws governing demolitions do exist. He acknowledged as much himself when noting that the Harare City Council is sitting on roughly 5,000 demolition orders, as iHarare News reported in its coverage of the Minister's remarks.
Under the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act and urban council by-laws, local authorities routinely obtain court sanctions to tear down structures built on wetlands, road servitudes, or unserviced land. When officials execute those orders, they act under the color of legal authority and remain shielded from criminal charges.
That shield holds even when their actions collide with Section 74 of the Constitution, which strictly forbids arbitrary evictions and home demolitions without proper judicial consideration.
Operation Chenesa and the politics of blame
Operation Chenesa began as a joint central government and local authority clean-up blitz targeting street vendors and informal markets. It rapidly spilled into residential neighborhoods, dismantling more than 16,500 structures nationwide and sparking public outrage as families watched homes they spent years building turn to rubble.
Faced with mounting anger, the central government abruptly paused house demolitions. zimDaily reported that the halt followed warnings from government figures that the demolitions were soiling the leadership's image, with Garwe presenting himself as the man who stopped the raids he helped launch with some 300 municipal officers.
Desperate to protect the clean-up drive ahead of Vision 2030 modernization targets, officials pivoted toward promising regularization of affected stands.
A script that insults citizens' intelligence
By claiming central government has no law mandating house demolitions, the Minister is trying to wash government hands of the humanitarian fallout while pinning the entire blame on municipal councils. It is a convenient script that casts local councils as heartless villains and central government as the benevolent savior.
It also directs public fury toward illegal land barons in speeches, even as those same politically connected figures remain largely untouchable in practice. Citizens do not need comforting fiction from a podium. They need honesty about the law, the protection of their constitutional housing rights, and above all real accountability for the state-enabled corruption that allowed land barons to sell unserviced stands in broad daylight for years.
Our people fought for this land. They did not fight so that politically connected criminals could parcel out wetlands and servitudes to desperate home-seekers, then vanish when the bulldozers arrive. The land is our birthright, won through the Chimurenga, and those who profiteered from it must answer before the same courts that issued those 5,000 demolition orders.
Telling desperate homeowners that no law allows demolitions breeds false hope and legal confusion. It leaves residents exposed the moment political winds shift and those existing court orders are dusted off.
What must happen next
Someone in power must eventually answer for the destruction of innocent families' homes. The Ministry of Local Government must clarify the legal position in plain language, publish the status of the 5,000 demolition orders, and state clearly whether compensation will be paid to affected households.
Until that happens, Garwe's claim that the state is protecting citizens will ring as hollow as the empty plots left behind by the bulldozers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Minister Garwe say no law authorizes house demolitions?
Yes. According to Bulawayo24 News, Garwe told a press conference that no government law authorizes house demolitions and insisted the state is protecting citizens.
How many structures has Operation Chenesa dismantled?
The operation has dismantled more than 16,500 structures nationwide over the past two months, according to the original report.
What does Section 140 of the Criminal Law Act cover?
It defines malicious damage to property as the intentional and unlawful destruction of someone else's property.
Can families whose homes were demolished be compensated?
No compensation has been announced. The report notes that affected families have received no commitment to date, and accountability remains unresolved.