Ask Mugabe, this is my house – Tsvangirai

By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |

President Robert Mugabe holds the secret to Morgan Tsvangirai’s ownership of the Highlands home he moved into during the coalition government and continues to stay in three years after leaving government, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) president implied in an interview.

Tsvangirai got the house against a government loan during the 2009-2013 Government of National Unity (GNU) in which he was prime minister.

After the expiry of the GNU that ushered in new general elections that Mugabe and Zanu PF won amid claims of poll fraud, some Zanu PF hawks have tried to push Tsvangirai out of the house, but all has come to nought.

Recently, Saviour Kasukuwere, who took over from Ignatius Chombo as the Local Government minister after the Zanu PF congress in December 2014, has tried to have the MDC-T leader evicted.

He insisted that Tsvangirai had not finished servicing the loan that he acquired to have the house renovated, adding that the property was still a government asset.

However, in an interview with the weekly Zimbabwe Independent, Tsvangirai maintained that he was the legal owner of the house.
MDC-T insiders and external critics have warned that staying in the house longer would compromise Tsvangirai as the leader of the main opposition in Zimbabwe.

“How does my house compromise me? This is my house. This is not anybody’s property, it’s my property.

“Why should anyone try to raise an issue about a house which they do not even know about? They made an issue out of the house but to me it’s nothing,” said Tsvangirai.

He waved off Kasukuwere’s efforts to evict him from the house.

“I am not answerable to Saviour Kasukuwere. He doesn’t know anything about this house. He is just trying to make political hot air out of something that he doesn’t know.

“He doesn’t know that I have a house which has a contract and I advise him to talk to President Mugabe before he starts uttering something that he doesn’t know,” he added.

Sources have been whispering that besides Tsvangirai, Joice Mujuru, who was then the Vice President, and Mugabe himself, also got private houses through government loans and it was agreed that they would all keep the houses.

Details about the reported houses that Mugabe and Mujuru built with their loans remain a mystery, though. Nehanda Radio