via Heal Zimbabwe Condemns Mazowe Evictions 9 January 2015
Heal Zimbabwe Trust condemns the illegal and unlawful eviction of more than 200 villagers from Manzou farm in Mazowe by heavily armed police officers. The evictions are meant to pave way for the First Lady Grace Mugabe’s planned private wildlife sanctuary project.
Heavily armed police members stormed Manzou village around 5am on Wednesday, 07 January 2015 and ordered villagers to vacate their houses and load their belongings into lorries while their houses were being destroyed. Those who attempted to resist were beaten up.
The evictions come after the High Court had ruled out last year that the people should be allocated alternative land before they can be evicted. To date these people have not been offered the alternative land. These evictions are a direct violation of the High Court ruling and the constitutional rights of people to shelter that enable every person to have access to adequate shelter and agricultural land.
It is sad that such cruel evictions are being carried out during the rainy season and reports from HZT information animators are that some of the victims are sleeping in the open and most of them have young babies and children thus exposing them to diseases.
These evictions remind Zimbabweans of the in famous 2005 Murambatsvina which left thousands of people homeless and again the exercise was carried out in the winter season clearly showing how heartless and insensitive our Political leaders and Government are. This is not the first time Mai Mugabe has been accused of forcefully evicting vulnerable citizens for personal interests.
Heal Zimbabwe urges the Government to stop these illegal evictions that are a direct violation of the High Court ruling and the Constitution and must offer the victims alternative land in line with the Court ruling. Ironically, the police whose mandate is to protect the vulnerable are the ones at the forefront instituting the evictions. Heal Zimbabwe calls upon political leaders to stop abusing State institutions to further personal agendas.
HZT continues to call for the institutionalisation of State apparatus and reformation of such to avoid their abuse by greedy politicians. These acts by the First lady do not at all contribute towards peaceful coexistences of communities and the country at large but rather its retrogressive in terms of efforts by concerned institutions, individuals and organisations towards moving the country ahead free from abuse, corruption, greedy, political violence, impunity and anarchy.
COMMENTS
Please die Mugarbage, die?
It is very ironic to notice that the person who went to meet the people and castigated the then Vice President for corruption is the person evicting about 200 people to pave way for animals. Are animals better than people. There are school children being displaced. All these random eviction contribute to the dropout rates in schools. The economic situations are highly disrupted. Kids sleeping outside in the cold adds to poor health conditions. I hope there will be some sense in what we do in Zimbabwe at some point. How much did the First Lady pay for the property.
Consistently failing to serve Zimbabwe. How many people were evicted??? Estimate please is anyone knows ?