[Mugabe is no doubt busy with more disinformation and deception. This was said in Pretoria – and as we all know, the ANC are Mugabe”s foremost cheerleaders! It all smells of deception. See the MDC”s comments below that Mugabe hasn”t built 5,000 homes in the last 5 years – never mind in one month – as he claims! Adding to the “smell” of a dirty rat… it is strange that first Mugabe smashes the homes of 1.5 million people… leaving them in the cold… and then claims that he will build 5,000 2-roomed homes! Even if this were true, what teeny percentage of people would actully be housed? I estimate that amounts to 0.3% of the people who were rendered homeless to begin with. What happens to the other 99.7%? Finally, at today”s exchange rate, how much money is Z$3 trillion? Zimbabwe is so completely bankrupt that 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars may sound impressive, but it probably amounts to a meaningless figure. In US Dollars, it is probably less than $500,000. Can you house 1.5 million people for a pittance of $500,000? Can you even build 5,000 houses for $500,000? That works out to: $100 to build a 2-roomed “house”. It all sounds ridiculous to me. This is just Mugabe propaganda which is given smatter of “respectability” by having the lie announced in Pretoria, with the ANC standing behind them and clapping hands and cheering them on. What a bunch of fakes they all are! Jan]

ZIMBABWE has started construction of 5000 houses for some of the people rendered homeless by Operation Murambatsvina, a Zimbabwean government spokesman said yesterday.

The construction of these dwellings by August 17 is the first part of a reconstruction programme that will cost Z$3-trillion, said Pritchard Zhou, minister counsellor at the Pretoria high commission.

“By this date, government will have built 5000 two-roomed houses with a toilet and shower,” he claimed at an Institute of Security Studies briefing in Pretoria yesterday.

Two thousand will be in Harare, 500 in Bulawayo and the rest in other parts of the country.

The destruction of informal settlements under the government began in late May, and has drawn fierce criticism of President Robert Mugabe.

Zhou said the government estimated that 130000 families had been left without homes by the operation.

Opposition Movement for Democratic Change justice spokesman David Coulthard said this equated to about 750000 people. However, he derided the plans.

“It”s preposterous,” he said. “When we debated the budget in parliament e(162)¢-oe Z$286bn was allocated for the whole of this year and half of that was for works. That was the only figure for housing.

“They haven”t built 5000 homes in the past five years, let alone by August. This is a publicity campaign for the United Nations envoy”s visit.”

Source: AllAfrica.Com
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200507080585.htm…br>