Harare plans new clean-up blitz
- From: "uNkulunkulu" <izulu@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 07:41:05 GMT
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_1755048,00.html
Harare plans new clean-up blitz
Harare - Harare's acting mayor said on Tuesday that a new clean-up operation
would be launched in a fortnight to get street children and beggars out of
the capital.
But, Sekesayi Makwavarara said the new campaign would be better planned than
the controversial Operation Restore Order in which about 46 000 people -
including street children - were rounded up as part of a massive clean-up
exercise.
Makwavarara said: "We are now finding a way of taking away the street kids
and the beggars, but by planning where we will take them to."
She said that the 10-week previous operation "wasn't thought out exactly and
that is why you see us now trying to put the right things in place".
Street children back
Makwavarara, who had been appointed by the government to run the city after
the suspension of an opposition mayor in 2003, said: "If they are coming
back, I can say we are not planning well."
Hundreds of beggars and children rounded up during the urban clean-up
campaign that ended in late July had returned to the streets of the city,
where they could often be seen at intersections and in downtown malls.
The detentions were part of the sweeping two-pronged Operation Restore Order
and Operation Murambatsiva, which meant drive out filth, launched in May in
which shacks, homes, market stalls and small shops were razed.
The opposition and human rights groups denounced the operation as a campaign
of repression, while Western governments and the United Nations harshly
condemned the blitz.
A UN report released last month said the demolitions had left 700 000 people
homeless or without sources of income, or both, across the country while a
further 2.4 million were affected to varying degrees.
'We can't throw people anywhere'
Makwavarara said a municipal committee would be holding meetings next week
to decide what to do with the street kids.
She said: "We have to find a good area. We can't just go around and throw
them anywhere. They are human beings.
"We have to find a place where there are toilets, where there is a clinic,
where we can take them to school."
Makwavarara said there were plans to recruit 200 more municipal police to
carry out the exercise.
But she said that the new police staff were part of routine recruitment to
fill up posts left vacant from retirement and deaths.
According to a study by a group of non-governmental organisations released
last year, an estimated 5 000 children lived on the streets of Harare, many
of whom were Aids orphans.
--
VOTE FOR AN INDEPENDENT ENGLAND
VOTE SNP
uNkulunkulu
uMvelinqangi
Mina bona wena
mina bona lo mombi yena lo shatini
Skat lo Boss yena fika, nika yena iwhisky
.
- Prev by Date: Re: economic truths
- Next by Date: Mugabe says no to Chissano
- Previous by thread: US envoy barred in Zim
- Next by thread: Mugabe says no to Chissano
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
