Operation Murambatsvina Victims At the Back of the Queue for Housing

Operation Murambatsvina Victims At the Back of the Queue for Housing



UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

18 July 2007
Posted to the web 18 July 2007

Harare

Scarce building materials, earmarked to rehouse victims of Zimbabwe's
Operation Murambatsvina, have been diverted to other projects, including
work on a mansion for President Robert Mugabe in an exclusive suburb of the
capital, Harare.

In the winter of 2005, informal homes and markets were demolished in the
ZANU-PF government's Operation Murambatsvina, aimed at clearing slums and
flushing out criminals, but which left more than 700,000 people homeless or
without a livelihood.

Uprooted families, many of whom are now spending their third winter without
adequate housing, were told at the time to return to their rural villages,
but many who had nowhere to go, including the descendants of immigrants,
were forced into government-sanctioned resettlement camps on the outskirts
of urban centres, with no source of employment.

International condemnation followed, and United Nations special envoy Anna
Tibaijuka pointed out that the operation breached both national and
international human rights law. The government then launched Operation
Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle (Operation Have a Good Life) and committed itself to
rebuilding homes and vending stalls.

A visit by an IRIN correspondent to Hopley Farm, a government camp 25km
southeast of Harare, for internally displaced people who lost their homes
during Operation Murambatsvina, found all construction activities had ground
to a halt.

Local government officials responsible for the construction of housing for
1,000 families as part of Operation Garikai told IRIN the programme had been
stopped after cement and money for workers' salaries had run out.

The officials showed IRIN a letter written to Ignatius Chombo, the minister
of local government, which read, "Please take note of the 11,150 bags [of
cement], said to have gone to President Robert Mugabe's residence in
Borrowdale."

They informed him that Operation Garikai construction activities had ceased
because "the cement was said to have been returned, when in actual fact it
was not. The cement was used in Borrowdale towards the construction of the
president's house."

Mugabe is renovating the Borrowdale Brooke home of the world's former number
one ranked golfer, Nick Price; some sections of the property, such as the
security wall and workers' accommodation, are still being built.

The officials said cement destined for housing at Hopley Farm was also being
used in other projects, such as the construction of the Manyuchi Dam in
Masvingo Province, in the southeast, repairs to Harare's maximum-security
Chikurubi prison, and also for renovations to some district hospitals.

In the letter shown to IRIN, the officials pleaded with the minister: "The
families are still staying in the open. I again pray for your authorisation
for us to allocate them stands for building houses. Once again, I draw your
attention to the fact that there is no construction going on."

Chombo dismissed the reports as a ruse by government opponents. "Those are
reports fuelled by our detractors. That is untrue and very mischievous."

Winters of discontent

Josephine Banda, a grandmother caring for eight of her grandchildren, said
the last seven years had been "very traumatic". "First I was chased away
from the farm I had known as home after it was taken over by a new farmer,"
she told IRIN.

"When I had just settled down as a maid, Operation Murambatsvina was
launched, leaving me homeless and with orphans to look after. I am appealing
to authorities to sympathise with us, and to avail enough resources so that
we are housed in decent accommodation."

Dunstan Moyo, 70, a pensioner who has lived under plastic sheeting at the
resettlement camp since his home was destroyed in Operation Murambastvina,
told IRIN he was too old to be moved elsewhere and would prefer to have a
house built for him at the holding camp because, like many others, he had
lost touch with his relatives.

"I was looking forward to spending my first winter in three years in a warm
house, but that has all been dashed after cement meant for the construction
of our houses disappeared under mysterious circumstances."

Only a small number of houses have been built by Operation Garikai, but they
have also become mired in controversy. Harare governor David Karimanzira,
city mayor Sekesai Makwavarara, and Patrick Zhuwawo, a deputy minister of
science and technology and nephew of Mugabe, are awaiting to appear in court
on corruption charges for allegedly allocating houses and stands to friends.

None of the houses built so far include lavatories or potable water, and
prospective tenants have been told that the costs of installing these
facilities would have to be borne by them.

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, municipal authorities have evicted the
beneficiaries of Operation Garikai housing, on the basis that the dwellings
could only be deemed habiltable if the government provided water and
sanitation.

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]


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