Scarce building materials, earmarked to rehouse victims of Zimbabwe's Operation Murambatsvina, have been diverted to other projects, including work on a mansion for President Robert Mugabe in an exclusive suburb of the capital, Harare.

In the winter of 2005, informal homes and markets were demolished in the ZANU-PF government's Operation Murambatsvina, aimed at clearing slums and flushing out criminals, but which left more than 700,000 people homeless or without a livelihood.

Uprooted families, many of whom are now spending their third winter without adequate housing, were told at the time to return to their rural villages, but many who had nowhere to go, including the descendants of immigrants, were forced into government-sanctioned resettlement camps on the outskirts of urban centres, with no source of employment.

International condemnation followed, and United Nations special envoy Anna Tibaijuka pointed out that the operation breached both national and international human rights law. The government then launched Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle (Operation Have a Good Life) and committed itself to rebuilding homes and vending stalls.

A visit by an IRIN correspondent to Hopley Farm, a government camp 25km southeast of Harare, for internally displaced people who lost their homes during Operation Murambatsvina, found all construction activities had ground to a halt.

Local government officials responsible for the construction of housing for 1,000 families as part of Operation Garikai told IRIN the programme had been stopped after cement and money for workers' salaries had run out.

The officials showed IRIN a letter written to Ignatius Chombo, the minister of local government, which read, "Please take note of the 11,150 bags [of cement], said to have gone to President Robert Mugabe's residence in Borrowdale."

They informed him that Operation Garikai construction activities had ceased because "the cement was said to have been returned, when in actual fact it was not. The cement was used in Borrowdale towards the construction of the president's house."

Mugabe is renovating the Borrowdale Brooke home of the world's former number one ranked golfer, Nick Price; some sections of the property, such as the security wall and workers' accommodation, are still being built.

The officials said cement destined for housing at Hopley Farm was also being used in other projects, such as the construction of the Manyuchi Dam in Masvingo Province, in the southeast, repairs to Harare's maximum-security Chikurubi prison, and also for renovations to some district hospitals.

In the letter shown to IRIN, the officials pleaded with the minister: "The families are still staying in the open. I again pray for your authorisation for us to allocate them stands for building houses. Once again, I draw your attention to the fact that there is no construction going on."

Chombo dismissed the reports as a ruse by government opponents. "Those are reports fuelled by our detractors. That is untrue and very mischievous."

Winters of discontent

Josephine Banda, a grandmother caring for eight of her grandchildren, said the last seven years had been "very traumatic". "First I was chased away from the farm I had known as home after it was taken over by a new farmer," she told IRIN.

"When I had just settled down as a maid, Operation Murambatsvina was launched, leaving me homeless and with orphans to look after. I am appealing to authorities to sympathise with us, and to avail enough resources so that we are housed in decent accommodation."

Dunstan Moyo, 70, a pensioner who has lived under plastic sheeting at the resettlement camp since his home was destroyed in Operation Murambastvina, told IRIN he was too old to be moved elsewhere and would prefer to have a house built for him at the holding camp because, like many others, he had lost touch with his relatives.

"I was looking forward to spending my first winter in three years in a warm house, but that has all been dashed after cement meant for the construction of our houses disappeared under mysterious circumstances."

Only a small number of houses have been built by Operation Garikai, but they have also become mired in controversy. Harare governor David Karimanzira, city mayor Sekesai Makwavarara, and Patrick Zhuwawo, a deputy minister of science and technology and nephew of Mugabe, are awaiting to appear in court on corruption charges for allegedly allocating houses and stands to friends.

None of the houses built so far include lavatories or potable water, and prospective tenants have been told that the costs of installing these facilities would have to be borne by them.

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, municipal authorities have evicted the beneficiaries of Operation Garikai housing, on the basis that the dwellings could only be deemed habiltable if the government provided water and sanitation.