CHITUNGWIZA: A retired army captain and the Zanu PF Mashonaland East Youth League have ordered an estimated 15,000 home seekers in Nyatsime to each pay them $10 to have applications for housing stands processed.

Last Wednesday, the ex-soldier - only identified as Masimbi Masimbi - and Zanu PF provincial youth leaders forced to a meeting hundreds of home seekers in Nyatsime, a peri-urban area near Chitungwiza.

At the meeting they ordered the locals to pay $10 each for "council files and construction of roads" despite the fact that the home seekers had already paid deposits for the residential stands to the Chitunwgiza Town Council.

Masimbi with the Zanu PF youths on tow, threatened to physically assault and remove from the waiting list any of the prospective home seekers who attend opposition parties' rallies in the area.

"We will repeat what we did on Saturday in Zengeza where MDC-T supporters were assaulted at a meeting. I don't want to see any of you attending an MDC-T rally," Masimbi told the home seekers.

Last Saturday, the MDC-T MP for Zengeza West, Simon Chidhakwa and scores of other residents were assaulted at a constituency feedback meeting. Although the perpetrators of the violent attacks are known, no arrests have been made.

An estimated 15,000 people have been allocated semi-urban stands in the area but the processes is being rushed as Zanu PF prepares draw support from the beneficiaries ahead of the 2018 elections.

However, sources in Nyatsime said Masimbi and the Zanu PF youths were trying to take advantage of the confusion created by Saviour Kasukuwere, the Zanu PF national commissar and minister of local government, in parceling out residential stands to party supporters without the involvement of the local authorities.

"We bought these stands some 10 years ago but we could not move in as the land was at a centre of an ownership wrangle with some A2 farmers who had obtained a court interdict barring Chitungwiza council from interfering in their activities," one of the home seekers said.

However, the issue has been resolved with the land now falling under local government.

"What Masimbi and his team are doing is outright fraud as they want to take advantage of the chaos that has been created by Kasukuwere and fleece desperate people," the source said.

"As we speak, there are people contracted by the council to construct roads but these Zanu PF people want to be paid for that work," he added.

Last week, Kasukuwere dished out residential stands to 7,000 Zanu PF youths in Bulawayo without consulting the city council.