adminThe owners say they want to renovate it.
The building, Victoria House, is situated between 8th Avenue and 9th Avenue along Herbert Chitepo Street.
The businesspersons, who were into hair dressing, computer shops, cellphone accessories to dress-making have reportedly been involved in a standoff with the owner of the building, Mr Madoo Jateen, believed to have been trying to evict them since 2010.
Mr Jateen reportedly bought the building from a city businessman and has allegedly been trying to evict the tenants on a number of occasions so that renovations are carried out, but has been meeting resistance.
Mr Jateen reportedly then sought the intervention of the courts and obtained a court order which was served to the tenants last month.
The tenants said some of them had been operating from the building for the past 30 years and alleged the evictions were politically motivated.
They accused Mr Jateen of victimising them and said he was not willing to meet them.
The tenants threatened to fight for their rights.
Repeated efforts to get in touch with Mr Jateen were fruitless yesterday as his number was continuously ringing without being answered.
When Chronicle visited the premises yesterday morning, the seemingly angry tenants were milling outside while officers from the Deputy Sheriff’s office were busy removing their property.
They were also pulling down mirrors, pictures and stickers from walls.
There was a heavy presence of police wielding batons and the tenants alleged police were also assisting the Deputy Sheriff’s workers to remove the property.
Some of the tenants were nearly involved in a scuffle with those who were removing the property, accusing them of breaking their equipment.
The tenants spent the day with their property outside after the building was locked.
In an interview, the chairman of Victoria House, Mr Thomas Mutambirwa, said their eviction was ill-timed, especially when the Government was trying to empower black people economically.
“We have tried to meet Mr Jateen several times but he is not willing. He says he wants to renovate the building and when we request to see him so that we get assurance that we would come back he refuses,” said Mr Mutambirwa.
“What he is doing is wrong. Where will all these 70 people go. We went to immigration department and established that he is not even Zimbabwean by origin but came from Kenya when he bought this building. Yes we were given the eviction notice last month but we know he used money.”
Mr Mutambirwa said they were not in arrears and their eviction could not have been for defaulting.
“People are now worried and we do not know what to do next. So we are stranded but we are still willing to negotiate with the owner. Even if he evicts us, he is not going to have peace,” he said.
Mr Mutambirwa alleged the eviction was politically motivated and said it was being done by people against Zanu-PF programmes.
“This is cell nine for Zanu-PF and we are aware this is the work of the opposition that is targeting buildings from where Zanu-PF members are operating from. We know this is a provocation and what they want is that if we retaliate then they would say Zanu-PF is violent,” he said.
One of the tenants, Ms Moleen Mhlanga, who was operating a printing business, said she would challenge her eviction because the Deputy Sheriff workers damaged her property.
“They broke my printer. I told them not to lift it and they said they had been sent by their boss to do so and went on to drop it by the door. This was my source of livelihood and what will I do now?”
Another businesswoman who said she was running a hair saloon said: “They removed the picture of our leader, President Mugabe, from the wall and we want it back.”
Contacted for comment, acting police spokesperson for Bulawayo Metropolitan Province Assistant Inspector Precious Simango said police were there to effect the High Court Order that the tenants should vacate the premises and to provide security for the tenants’ property.
Online Reporter