Harare, Zimbabwe – At around 5am on Friday, August 14, Methro Masunga, 28, was jolted awake by the sound of bulldozers and shouting municipal police officers. Outside, earth-moving vehicles were preparing to demolish homes in St Martins Extension, a suburb of Harare.

At first, Masunga thought the machinery had arrived for roadworks. Then she realised her home was among those marked for destruction.

“I thought they were here for some other business, probably land development or road grading; alas, they had been sent to destroy our homes. We tried to understand, but no one would hear us,” Masunga told Al Jazeera.

A single mother of three, Masunga had spent years saving to own a home. She worked part-time cleaning other people’s houses, putting aside what she could to buy a residential stand.

“I worked part-time jobs doing laundry and washing dishes in people’s houses for five years, saving where possible.…