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Frail 80-year-old seeks 'consideration' in face of demolitions
6th January 2016.
Fainted upon news of demolition plans
“I have stayed here for decades,” narrates the elder.
“I can’t see a future for myself because the only home I have is going to be demolished,” laments the senior citizen who resides near the Kigogo Sambusa market in Ilala District where hundreds of other houses face demolition.
Neema, a mother of 7children, said it took years for her to complete construction of the house because her income was very low.
She said her late husband, Antony Mwikaro died in 1968, when they were living in a mud hut that she has since re-constructed to a concrete bungalow.
“We started living here with my husband in the early 1960s…but he passed away after eight years. I managed to build this house from a little money that I was able to raise from my small businesses,” she recalls.
She said the demolition exercise is targeting even houses that have never been flooded like her own and said that there are unfounded rumours that the area has been sold to an investor .
She said the demolition exercise is targeting even houses that have never been flooded like her own and said that there are unfounded rumours that the area has been sold to an investor .
Interviewed, one of her daughters, Farida Antony said her mother owns the land legally and have been paying property tax to the Kinondoni municipal council since 1999.
She said following the shocking news of the demolition, her mother fell sick and was admitted at Amana Regional Hospital.
“When my mother got the news of the demolition she fainted and was rushed to the hospital where she was admitted for three days,” she attested.
Another daughter, Rose Antony said they still depend on the house for income because they rent out several rooms to tenants for 30,000/- per room per month.
She said some of the tenants have started to remove their properties in fear of the demolition; “we are supposed to take our mother to Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) for further medical examination but we don’t have cash…we would have taken some cash from our tenants but they have already left,” she said calling on President John Magufuli to intervene in the matter.
Earlier, Acting Director of Rural and Town Planning at the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Prof John Lupala told this paper that the city master plan has a 20 year span and that the initial city master plan expired in 1999.
According to him, over the past 16 years, Dar es Salaam has been operating without a settlement plan. He said that upon expiry of the Dar es Salaam master plan in 1999, the city council came up with a Strategic Urban Development Plan in 2002 but it was not approved by the ministry.
In November last year, many Dar es Salaam residents were left homeless after the ministries of Lands and Environment in collaboration with Kinondoni Municipal Council demolished hundreds of homes illegally put up in the flood-prone Msimbazi valley.
As of yesterday, the government has declared a moratorium of the demolitions until next month when the exercise is to resume in the valley stretching from the Kinondoni municipality to Pugu and where more than 8,000 houses are to be demolished.
The exercise will also see structures constructed in open spaces or close to water sources or the sea shore in Mwenge, Kinondoni Biafra and Sinza suburbs pulled down affecting thousands of families.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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