The Zimbabwe Situation

by Eric Beauchemin

30-01-2007

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In May 2005, the Zimbabwean government launched Operation Murambatsvina. The authorities translated this as "Operation Clean-up" or "Operation Restore Order", but the more literal translation is "Operation Drive out the Filth". Zimbabweans call it their tsunami.

Officially it was designed to eliminate crime, clean up the streets and regularise the informal sector, the backbone of the country's collapsing economy. In actual fact, the operation destroyed the livelihoods of nearly 2.5 million Zimbabweans. It also left 700,000 people homeless.

Slow-motion earthquake
Ncedisani Mpofu's house was destroyed in the early hours of June 12th. "The police came at five o'clock in the morning. They said 'go out'. As I was taking my children out of the house, the police asked me for matches. They burnt my house." She lost all her possessions. When she asked the police why they were doing this, they simply answered "go away, go back to where you came from."

Ncedisani Mpofu, her mother and two of her children in their temporary hut

Other victims recount similar stories. A local human rights worker who witnessed Operation Murambatsvina and has studied the impact on the victims describes the operation as "a slow-motion earthquake. Soldiers were just advancing at walking pace through the suburbs and they were just destroying as they went. It went on and on, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it."

Reasons
86 percent of the dwellings destroyed in Operation Murambatsvina were robust structures, built out of brick and mortar and with corrugated iron roofs.

According to a local human rights activist, who wishes to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisals by the authorities, the ruling ZANU-PF party launched Operation Drive out the Filth because of growing opposition to its rule. The consequences were felt particularly in urban areas, where many voters supported the opposition MDC party.

The authorities wanted to force opposition voters "out of the cities and back into rural areas, where they can be controlled," says the activist.

"In rural areas, chiefs and traditional leadership control the population. They control who gets grazing rights and food. They can insist that people in their areas vote in a certain way and toe the line. They can force people to attend certain political rallies. Otherwise they get punished." Aftermath

The Tshabalalas

Many of the victims spent months in the bush, fearing that the authorities would return. Mpofu eventually returned to the remains of her home. She rebuilt it, but in the past year and half, the authorities have returned eight times. Each time, they tore her dwelling down again.

Others, like Misipili Tshabalala, took refuge in local churches. But a month later, those sanctuaries were evacuated by security officials. According to Ray Motsi, a pastor at a Baptist church in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city, "they did it at gunpoint in the middle of the night."

He and other church leaders tried to negotiate with the authorities, but "we were taken to the police station and held for two or three hours. When I returned to my church at four a.m., I found the place empty."

Transit camps

Pastor Ray Motsi

Thousands of families were herded into transit camps. "We had a hard time," says Tshabalala. For three days, they were forced to remain in a camp, without food or blankets. The authorities then urged them to return to their 'original homes', but the Tshabalalas, like many, had no ancestral home to return to.

The Tshabalalas eventually returned to the area where they used to live outside of Bulawayo. They spent months out in the open, fearing the authorities would come back and destroy any shelter they built. Eventually though, they did build a temporary shelter, but in September of last year, the police returned.

"They collected everybody, including our children, and took us to the central police station. We spent a whole day and a whole night there. They took our fingerprints and then released us. We had no transport, so we had to walk back home. It's 12 kilometres away."

This woman, who wishes to remain anonymous, lives in a high-density suburb of Bulawayo. Her house is tiny: a small living room, an even smaller bedroom and a kitchen. After the death of her sister in 1998, her sister's children came to live with her. They joined the other 15 people living in the house. She applied and received a permit from the local authorities to build a bedroom in her backyard. In June 2005, police destroyed the bedroom and the structures many of her neighbours had built in their backyards.

"Now we are all squeezed into this tiny house. That's why almost all of us have tuberculosis. We can't keep those who are infected separate from those who are not."

The authorities have asked her and the others affected by Operation Murambatsvina to register to get new accommodation, but over a year and a half later, nothing has happened. Like many, she is angry with President Robert Mugabe, who she refers to simply as 'he'. "We are fed up because he has always got false promises. There's nothing we can do because he's always cheating us. We wanted to be free, but we are not free because we are starving, starving more than our forefathers."

Traders
Operation Murambatsvina also affected the 2.5 million people who depend on informal trade for their livelihood. In May 2005, says Lovis Jones of the Bulawayo Upcoming Vendors Association, the police arrived "and they began burning and destroying our stands."

"They beat up some of our members who were resisting. They took the remaining goods in a truck to a warehouse. A lot of our goods went missing. We suspect that some police officers helped themselves. We have tried to recover our goods, but without success."

Many of the traders are now destitute and going hungry.

"The government has made a lot of promises to us, saying they are going to build alternative places to replace our stalls. But so far they have only come up with one site and it can only accommodate 30 people. On top of that, you have to prove that you are a ZANU-PF member to get a stall there."

International condemnation

Mary Ndlovu

The United Nations has been extremely critical of the operation. A team, led by Anna Tibaijuka, carried out an extensive investigation, producing a report that condemned Murambatsvina. It called for prosecution of the culprits and compensation for the victims. So far, very few new shelters have been constructed. According to a local human rights worker, "our government has been refused to cooperate with the United Nations, because to do so would be admitting that there was a humanitarian crisis and there remains a humanitarian crisis. And to do that is to actually admit guilt."

Mary Ndlovu, another human rights worker, is also scathing in her criticism of the operation.

"Murambatsvina was a totally illegal operation. The reasons for it, one can debate. The consequences of it, one can't debate. They're there: impoverishment, illness, death, dislocation and social collapse. It's an absolutely disaster for the people it affected."

The Zimbabwean courts have issued orders restraining the police and the local authorities, but the evictions are continuing to this day.

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