AFRICA/ZIMBABWE - Two stories among many: 200,000 homeless people after government’s Murambatsvina ‘Restore Order’ operation

Thursday, 23 February 2006

Harare (Fides Service)- The operation Restore Order started in Harare and other cities on 19 May 2005 by the Zimbabwe government under the pretext of ridding the cities of black market trade and illegal building forced at least 200,000 people to camp in the open air after their ‘homes’ were demolished, according to the United Nations.
Besides Harare, the operation Restore Order was launched in Bulawayo, Mutare, Chitungwiza, Rusape, Murehwa, Gweru, Masvingo and Kadoma (see Fides 21 June 2005).
But figures cannot describe the human tragedies behind them. For example a mother and two small children originally from Mozambique forced to sleep in the open in the cold nights of June and July Winter in the southern hemisphere. Like many of the people in the poorest city districts the Operation had stopped her from selling food without a licence which meant she had lost her only source of income”. This was reported by Jesuit magazine In Touch published in Zimbabwe.
But to guarantee schooling for her two teenaged sons the young mother went back to selling “sazda” (the staple diet in Zimbabwe).
The police arrested her on Sunday 19 February. “She was held for two days and nights in a filthy smelly police cell dirtied with human waste. If the authorities are so concerned about hygiene and public health (one of the main official reasons for Murambatsvina) why is refuse not removed ? Why are people held in such filthy police cells” In Touch asks.
Another example mentioned by the Jesuit magazine is a family of five, parents and three teenage children - used to live with the husband’s parents in an outbuilding that was destroyed by the “Murambatsvina”. The wife promptly went to register the family’s name for a stand on which to build a family home. Hundreds of people went to queue for such registrations ad the time each paying $120,000. No one ha heard anything about it since. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 23/2/2006 righe 29 parole 337)


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