Africa News

Zimbabwe landlord removes tenants' roof

May 22, 2007, 7:43 GMT

Harare - Fed up with your tenants? Just take off their roof. That's what one frustrated Zimbabwean landlord did last week, reports said Tuesday. The landlord hired workers from the low-income Kuwadzana suburb in Harare on Friday to remove tiles from a house he was renting to four families, press reports said. Eighteen people, including a four-month old baby, have now been left without shelter, said the state-controlled Herald newspaper in a front-page story. The landlord, who bought the house last year and has been trying to evict its tenants for some time without success, is reported to have told them: When you feel the cold you will move. Winter is setting in in Zimbabwe. The tenants say they are unable to find alternative accommodation. There's an acute shortage of housing in Zimbabwe, partly as a result of the government's controversial campaign of shack demolitions in 2005 that the UN says left at least 700,000 people homeless and jobless. And because of Zimbabwe's skyrocketing inflation rate currently running at more than 3,700 per cent, those lucky enough to find somewhere to rent often find they can't keep pace with the rent increases. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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Zimbabwe landlord removes tenants' roof

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