Man razes family home

Raymond Jaravaza

WHEN a Bulawayo man from Magwegwe suburb razed his family home at the turn of the millennium, neighbours assumed he would build a mansion to replace the city council-built four-roomed family home.

More than two decades later, nothing, but an empty piece of land, sandwiched by two homes on either side, is proof that a house once stood there.
Overgrown grass, a perimeter wall that might collapse at any time is all that is left.

A neighbour told Chronicle that the house was razed down by the owner’s son, who is now based in Australia, in the early 2000s.

“He used to live here with his mother before relocating overseas. The son complained that the house had huge cracks and the next thing the whole house was demolished and building contractors started digging a foundation for a bigger house that he wanted to build for his mother,” said the neighbour who preferred to remain anonymous.

“Months then years passed and nothing was built, the foundation that had been dug by the contractors started caving in and eventually grass started growing all over the yard.

The neighbour said it’s been years since the house was demolished

“MaMsimanga the old lady relocated to her rural home and we haven’t seen her in a very long time. I don’t even have her cell phone number, but the last time I heard, she was said to be in South Africa where one of her daughters is based,” said the neighbour.

A few metres from the demolished house is Mabhodoko Shopping Centre.

An elderly man who spoke to this publication at the shopping centre said that the son who ordered the demolishing of the house is a former mechanic who worked from the family home.

“You see that old car next to the gate, the son used to fix cars and used to drive that vehicle. When he relocated overseas, he promised to build his mother a bigger home so the old house was demolished but nothing has been built all these years,” said Isaiah Nkomo.

“I don’t think he will ever build another house, particularly now that his mother rarely comes to Bulawayo. The last time I spoke to her, she was very bitter that a house where she raised her children was demolished for nothing.”