A CHINESE corporate investor in Zimbabwe has refused a government directive to rebuild defective houses for relocated families, leaving them exposed to harsh weather conditions, an internal communication has revealed.
Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Dinson), the firm behind Zimbabwe’s massive Manhize steel project, was instructed to reconstruct six substandard houses at Singleton Farm and to provide temporary tents for the displaced households.
But it allegedly refused to comply with the directive.
“Please take note, the new administrator at Dinson Mine has categorically refused to honour the agreement that the mine made to re-construct the six houses, which were poorly built by the mine at Singleton Farm as compensation,” the letter, written by the Chikomba District development coordinator on December 18, 2024 and seen by the Zimbabwe Independent, states.
“The current situation is that: the six families are almost living in the open since the buildings are cracking and the rains are destroying properties of the families.
“It is in this regard that this office confirms that the six buildings were built not to standard and the office calls for Dinson mine administration once again to reconstruct up to standard buildings for the families. It is my wish that this matter be treated with the urgency it deserves.”
The letter further urged the miner to provide temporary tents for the families while negotiations continue.
The crisis echoes problems reported at Sable Farm, where families relocated from Mushenjere have also raised the alarm.
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A recent report by the Centre for Research and Development (CRD) details a worsening humanitarian situation in the relocation areas.
Villagers told CRD investigators that Dinson had stopped food allowances, drilled a borehole below toilets, and moved them into houses that are structurally unsound, “raining inside”, with windows that cannot close and doors secured with wire.
“From a distance, the houses look beautiful, but inside they are raining,” one villager said.
CRD warns that the new settlement lacks schools, a clinic and electricity, and argues that government is “in breach of its constitutional and international duties” for allowing forced relocations without basic services such as safe water, habitable housing or school facilities.
Contacted for comment, Dinson project manager Wilfred Motsi said he had not seen the letter.
“The government came with the plan, which is standard and it has been controlled by local government and local authority. They inspected the construction and there was a local contractor,” he told the Independent.
“Some of the things they are saying are not correct, they must come on the ground and we meet them together with the community… We have stopped giving them allowances and the compensation money was given to them.”
Motsi added that Dinson had provided boreholes and begun solarising the houses.
However, 86-year-old displaced villager Tapfumaneyi Mugoni claimed using contaminated water from a borehole drilled below toilets.
“I can’t walk two kilometres to fetch water from Dinson’s tap,” he said, adding the miner still owes each family three months of food allowances.
“There is no dam, no irrigation, no centre pivot, and the rains have already come. People elsewhere are planting, but we have nowhere to plant.
“There is no school here; our grandchildren need ECD and are no longer going to school.
“The clinic at Mhou is about 14 kilometres away,” Mugoni said.
CRD has also warned that more than 800 additional families stand to lose their farmland as the Manhize complex expands, with some being offered plots as small as 0,6 hectares — far below the six hectares many have cultivated for over 40 years.
