Fresh evictions in Zimbabwe
By Violet Gonda
I June 2006
As the world responded to shocking pictures of Operation Murambatsvina released by Amnesty International, Wednesday, more bad news emerged. Mike Davies the Chairperson of the Combined Harare Residents and Ratepayers Association reports that some of the victims of last year’s so-called clean up exercise were being evicted again.
He said, “Yesterday armed ZRP details evicted a group of about 30 squatters living near Glen Norah on the banks of Mukuvisi. These are people who had been displaced after Murambatsvina and had erected makeshift habitat. They were given two hours notice to get out and the police said they were coming back to burn down those structures.”
He added, “There are also some dwelling/formal structures in Mbare were people are being evicted as well. So Murambatsvina is by no means over.”
The news comes in the wake of shocking satellite images released on Wednesday by Amnesty International providing the clearest possible evidence to date of the devastating impact of the Zimbabwean government's policy of house demolitions. The human rights group used images of Porta Farm before and after the introduction of Robert Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina to show the wholesale destruction of a large community in Zimbabwe. Porta Farm was a large informal settlement just outside the capital Harare and home to nearly 10 000 people. More than 850 structures were destroyed.
Mike Davies said he applauds the efforts made by Amnesty International to draw attention to the Zimbabwean crisis. He said, “It also feeds into efforts to get the Secretary General of the UN to come and see for himself what is on the ground and we as representatives of the residents and of the city that has been mainly affected by Murambatsvina implore the Secretary General to insist that he comes and visit this country to see exactly what the situation is on the ground.”
According to UN estimates the countrywide clean up exercise left 700 000 people homeless and affected at least 2.4 million people. Most of the victims have been dumped in remote rural areas while others have been dumped in squalid holding camps like Hopely Farm just outside Harare. Human rights groups, lawyers and church groups are denied little or no access to these holding camps. Davies said, “ Effects of Murambatsvina have been to create huge numbers of true squatters who have no security of tenure and are living in hovels constructed from waste plastics and branches.”