Other problems have erupted. In Chitungwiza, a stronghold of Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, a corruption scandal has engulfed the City Council. Elected officials stand accused of selling access to hundreds of pieces of city-controlled land for about $4,000 per plot and pocketing most of the money.

Council members from Mr. Tsvangirai’s party, with the help of their former adversaries, parceled off soccer fields, playgrounds, wetlands and areas set aside for schools and churches. Land in Chitungwiza is not privately owned; individuals and businesses lease it from the government. But there is a long waiting list, and bribes to city councilors helped people jump the line.

For many, the painful irony is that thousands were pushed out of Chitungwiza by Mr. Mugabe’s government in a 2005 demolition campaign to eviscerate opposition strongholds. Hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed, and today housing is scarce and expensive. City employees are supposed to receive land for houses, but many are waiting — and officials from Mr. Tsvangirai’s party are now accused of profiting from the misfortune.

Never Tarugarira, a janitor and handyman at a community center, has been on a waiting list since 2005, but his number has never come up. So he rents two tiny, fetid rooms for $100 a month, eating up much of his paycheck — that is, when he gets one. He has not been paid for the past five months because of the city’s fiscal woes.

“Some nights we go to sleep without eating,” he said.

Alice Chihambakwe, another Chitungwiza resident waiting years for a plot, says her husband goes to work every day at the city’s sewer plant, but has not been paid in months. Two of her children had to postpone crucial high school exams because the family could not pay the fees, about $30 per child.

“Our lives are on hold,” Ms. Chihambakwe said, weeping softly.

The councilors proved easy marks for corrupt bureaucrats from Mr. Mugabe’s party, said Amos Matanhike, a former town clerk in Chitungwiza.