ZLHR condemns eviction of people from ancestral land

In recent months and weeks, some local and central government authorities have enlisted the services of law enforcement agents and descended on some villagers, where they arrested and detained them and also getting them prosecuted for allegedly occupying gazetted land without lawful authority.

In some instances, judicial officers have convicted the villagers and ordered them to move from their homesteads and land, which they have occupied for several years as it is their ancestral land.

The intervention by ZLHR in representing the villagers and through filing appeals in court challenging their eviction as an infringement of their right to freedom from arbitrary eviction guaranteed in section 74 of the Constitution, has saved them as High Court Judges have set aside the evictions.

The insensitive and callous eviction of people against clear Constitutional provisions that protect against arbitrary eviction stamps from both the local and central government’s intention to continue violating their constitutionally protected rights and commit rights abuse excesses with impunity. It is worrisome that both the central and local governments have dismally failed to follow the dictates of the law in executing evictions.

ZLHR does not support lawlessness in occupying land, however, forced evictions have the effect of stripping affected families which include women, people with disabilities and children, of their constitutional right to freedom from arbitrary eviction and dignity and cause loss of livelihoods, life, and property and, in turn, impact basic social, economic, cultural, political and civil rights of several people.

Despite adopting a progressive Constitution in 2013, which guarantees freedom from arbitrary eviction, it is incomprehensible that both local and central governments have once again chosen to embark on an infamous operation to forcibly evict and displace people without offering them any alternative accommodation or shelter.

The heartless evictions and displacements amount to inhuman and degrading treatment of citizens in contravention of guarantees contained in the Constitution and regional and international instruments to which Zimbabwe is a state party.

ZLHR calls upon local and central government to immediately halt the forced evictions, ensure the protection of several internally displaced people and other vulnerable groups and take remedial action to protect the rights provided in the Constitution and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

It is prudent for both the local and central government to invest efforts and resources in creating a stable, safe and just society, which places people at the centre of development plans and commits to advancing social development including uplifting marginalised communities rather than perpetuating injustice. Local and Central government should wherever possible prevent people from constructing houses in undesignated areas than to wait for them to finish constructing and then demolish properties without following the due process of law.