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Zimbabwe
Parliament debate on Operation Murambatsvina
- Page 3
Extracted
from Hansard Vol. 32, No. 5
Parliament of Zimbabwe
June 23,
2005
View
list of 2005 Zimbabwe Parliamentarians
Jump to contributions
by:
- MR
MUSHORIWA
- MR.
MZILA NDLOVU
- MR.
MUTSEKWA
- THE
DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE (MR. CHIHOTA)
- MR.
SIKHALA
- MR. MUGABE
- MR. MZEMBI
- MISS STEVENSON
-
THE DEPUTY MINISTER
OF INFORMATION AND PUBLICITY (MR. MATONGA)
- MR. COLTART
MR.
MUGABE: I stand up to defend the actions of Government. What I know
is that Hon. Sikhala and the rest of them are very happy with what
the Government has done to destroy illegal structures. They are
so happy to the extent that even Hon. Chimanikire yesterday confirmed
to me that the operation restore order was proper. He said that
it was only the timing he did not agree with. There is no other
good time other than now. Hon. Sikhala accepted that it was long
overdue and even in his own presentation now when he is pointing
to ZANU PF members that they also have illegal structures. Those
illegal structures must also be destroyed. We are agreeing that
illegal structures must go. Hon. Sikhala should admit and perhaps
suggest the way forward, that it could have been done slightly different.
The fact that this operation had to happen everybody agrees including
Hon. Chamisa.
Hon. Chamisa agreed yesterday
that Operation Murambatsvina was proper. You said that you were
happy, you are now able to go around in a clean environment. You
were so proud of the operation yesterday. Therefore, you must not
pretend that the operation is a bad one. The operation is good for
Zimbabwe. We must accept that we need to clean up the cities where
you are the legislators. You are the legislators that is why you
are so happy, that the towns you are controlling are now very clean.
The ZANU PF Government has done you a favour. You are able to go
to Kuwadzana and you are able to tell people to go the right places
and their businesses are not all over the streets.
MR.
MZEMBI: 48 hours ago I moved a motion to thank the President for
the Official Opening of the Parliament. In that speech, I looked
at the fact that there was need to restore dignity - I am
talking about dignity here, to restore dignity to the informal sector.
There are times in the turn around of our . . .
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order,
who said that statement? - [HON. MEMBERS: Which statement?]
- The statement that you are talking of dignity, where there
is no dignity. - [HON. MEMBERS: No response] - I appeal
to you hon. members, otherwise I will treat you the way you deserve
to be treated.
MR. MZEMBI: Thank you
very much. Some of us really wonder why we should be stuck in this
kind of class action. The people who seconded me to this House expect
me to debate in tranquillity in order for me to be able to articulate
my views. That is the democratic space that I talked about yesterday
where I said President Mugabe has ensured that there be democratic
space but it does not allude to abuse.
Having said that, I said
that there was need to restore dignity and on the few occasions
that I have been able to run through Matapi Hostels that we see
in Mbare, they do not inspire a sense of dignity or the dignity
of its inhabitants. I want to implore to hon. members across that
divide that the land we fought for in this country, the land that
we are reallocating to people of Zimbabwe, which regrettably you
have not been part to because you thought it was some sort of political
joke, is meant to restore that dignity. And, the fact that we are
able to resettle some of your supporters who have been staying in
various . . . [MR. CHIDARIKIRE: Inaudible interjection]
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon.
Chidarikire, could you please leave the House.
Hon. Chidarikire leaves
the chamber.
MR. MZEMBI: Bye -
Bye! To the extent that we have not been able to restore that dignity . . .
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order,
Hon. members, I have to appeal to you once more. I do not mind interjections
but when they actually degenerate to outright abuse of others, I
cannot let that happen in the House.
MR. MZEMBI: I was alluding
to the fact that land is at the core of our belief to restore that
dignity. It would be a joy to this country if we are able to allocate
pieces of land where people are able to build their proper houses
instead of staying in such places that I have witnessed in Mbare
and other high density areas. It is the wish of those people you
represent that they also live like you. I saw a lot of you when
you came into this House, you were very thin so they want to also
live like you and have the fat that we all have. It can only come
when they have shelter, which is a basic right that we should give
to our people. It is sometimes necessary, in a turn around programme
of this nature, to me it is a turn around programme, vis-à-vis
the provision of shelter to our people. You sometimes have to destroy
in order to build and it is that shock treatment that may be necessary
for the beneficiaries of those programmes. It may just be temporary
pain but the long term gains of such temporary pain are unparalleled.
Your supporters, regrettably
some of them have gone to the rural areas and we have given them
a better dignity than they had in the urban centres. They are better
settled right now.
I also see elements of
hypocrisy, in that the President of their party by the name of Morgan
Tsvangirai - there is a statement that he made a year ago
about people mushrooming everywhere. I cannot understand your level
of hypocrisy to the extent that you do not want to see mushrooming
in urban centres but you would rather see it in the farms. This
exercise is being applied in the context of the rule of law, in
accordance with the provisions of Urban Councils Act, which requires
that there be proper settlement in urban areas. We have said you
do not want to see people mushrooming but our mushrooms in rural
areas are being grown on fertile land but where are growing your
mushrooms here in urban areas? We are simply asking you to restore
the dignity of your people.
In physical planning,
which these guys always call for, I have heard them on numerous
times calling for orderliness, rule of law, organised planning;
one of the very definite points in physical planning is the issue
of rural to urban migration. This exercise that we have applied
in the last month or so have been one of the biggest reversals of
rural -- urban migration. We think that if you are so worried about
that, we have actually solved it for you. We are going to restore
dignity to our people by making sure that when they came to your
urban settlements, they come when we have planned for them. That
is why we are in the process of having building brigades so that
when they come to the urban centres or when they come to the points
we designated for them, there will be water there, electricity there,
because the kind of habitats they were staying in were separated
by curtains and there is no dignity in those habitats. We want to
restore dignity to your supporters [MR. COLTART: Is there dignity
in freezing to death?]
Lastly but not least,
I implore these hon. members to rally behind our clean up campaign
because they desperately need it. In five years time, you will not
have anything to sell to your constituencies. We are going top give
your constituents better programmes for the future.
MRS
STEVENSON: I am impressed that the Hon Mzembi believes that people
require dignity. There is indeed a concept of basic human dignity
and I would implore Hon Mzembi that even so, right now with the
effects of this operation Murambatsvina, he cannot believe that
the victims are enjoying the basic right of human dignity.
I was disappointed
that none of the three Ministers responsible for the Operation Muramabtsvina
were in the House to listen to this debate on the operation. I am
somewhat mollified that Hon Mohadi has come in as the Minister of
Home Affairs, since the police are taking part in these operations.
I will call upon Hon. Members on the other side of the House that,
if they have not done so, please before you make up your minds,
visit an area that has been laid waste in this operation to see
the actual conditions before you make up your minds.
Madam Speaker,
I am the representative of one of the areas that have been badly
affected in Harare, Hatcliffe Extension. I would like to just describe
to you what has happened to those people in my constituency, Hatcliffe,
which by the way, of all the wards in Harare North, was the only
ward which voted for ZanuPF. All the other wards were massively
MDC. Every ballot box in this ward which you have laid waste to
voted for ZanuPF and so there is no sense, in my view, in doing
that to your supporters.
Madam Speaker,
I respond on the new stands which were designed by Government –
in fact, I went there on Friday morning 27 May and I was told that
the police were there, a massive convoy of police, and they were
forcing everyone at gun point – they had weapons and were forcing
everyone to take down their own poles and houses. So, I went there
on Friday morning and I found out that indeed that is what was happening.
People were frightened by the weapons, and they had to take down
their own houses. I found the officer in charge, the officer commanding
the operations and I asked him where the people were going to go.
I reminded him that the people there actually had lease agreements
– actually they had presented them to the police. There was a very
vague answer.
However, he
told me with pride that at the time there were 3 000 policemen in
Hatcliffe Extension. Now, that is a massive military presence for
ordinary people, far in excess of what is required if you just wanted
the people to move out of there. So, people wee very frightened.
The Officer-in-Charge assured everyone that they would not be moving
down to the old "so-called" temporary holding camp of
Hatcliffe Extension which was set up by Government when the people
from Churu farm were forced off that farm and moved right across
the City and dumped just outside the city boundaries so that the
city of Harare would not be responsible. He assured us that it would
not happen, on Friday. On Sunday, the same policemen went down there
to the government-created holding camp and forced people to destroy
their own houses. These houses were not illegal structures, particularly
in the old holding camp. These houses were the wooden cabins which
were provided by the Ministry of Local Government. It is government
property.
When I approached
Minister Chombo, I told him that they were destroying government
property and that it was taxpayers paying for those but now they
had been destroyed. I would like to table before this House some
of the photographs which have appeared in the press – of people
in Hatcliffe Extension and elsewhere, children, a person trying
to sell mice, an informal trader, and to buttress Hon Mushoriwa’s
statement that children were killed in this operation, indeed, there
is one article explaining that a two-year-old child was killed in
Old Tafara during this Operation Murambatsvina . I would
like to table these articles and photographs. I have already said
that Hatcliffe Extension was established by government – it was
Churu farm people were living there on plots which were given on
long leases by the late politician, the late Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole,
a former leader of ZANU. They were forced…
DEPUTY SPEAKER
: Order, Hon Stevenson, we cannot table cuttings from newspapers
in this House.
MISS STEVENSON:
May I table the originals.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
No.
MISS STEVENSON:
What about the photographs from a newspaper publication.
THE DEPUTH SPEAKER:
No, you cannot.
MISS STEVENSON:
I am sure that hon. Members have seen them; they have been in The
Herald and Sunday Mail. Madam Speaker, Hatcliffe temporary holding
camp was set up in 1993 and it was called a temporary holding camp,
exactly the same as Caledonia farm now and people were told that
they would be there until they were screened and they would be resettled
in the rural areas. That was in November 1993 until they were moved
off two to three weeks ago. Those people were still there 13 years
later and so to imagine that the people in Caledonia farm are going
to be moved in three days does not make sense. Those people are
very likely to be there also for 13 years. In my view, there is
no possibility of place thing having any shorter history than Hatcliffe
Extension.
Madam Speaker,
a few years ago, the people from Hatcliffe Extension Porta farm,
Dzivaresekwa, etc, were allocated stands on a site and service scheme
which we call ‘new stands’ which is also in Hatcliffe Extension.
All of those stands have been razed to the ground. Madam Speaker,
donors and international donors as well have funded some of these
projects for the new stands. The World Bank has funded the main
water supply and sewage works on the farm etc. There has been a
great deal of investment in that site and service scheme and people
were given their plot numbers and they were living mostly in the
cabins which were Government cabins.
I would like
to give you some statistics of what had happened in Hatcliffe Extension.
There were 15,000 to 20,000 people living in the two sections of
Hatcliffe Extension. Research done about three years ago found that
20 percent of all the households in Hatcliffe Extension are child-headed
households, which is one fifth. So, we are talking of 3,000 children
who are living in child headed households, who are being forced
to move away and who do not necessarily know where they come from.
Madam Speaker, 45 percent of the children in that area were already
not attending school according to this research. Now, as far as
we know, none of these children as far as we know, is attending
school. What we know is that Zambuko Primary School, had an enrolment
of 1 100 children before this exercise. Madam Speaker, the school
has since been forced to close down. That is only one school and
we have most of the children in Hatcliffe new stands attending Hatcliffe
1 and 2 primary schools – those children also if their parents have
been displaced, are most likely not attending school.
I as their elected
representative, am bringing this matter to the attention of the
House, so that the members on both sides realize how serious this
is. We have no idea how these children are going to go back to school.
When I spoke to some parents on Monday, they were at the school
but have been made to go somewhere else and said "we do not
have the money to buy the new uniforms." The people in Hatcliffe
Extension are some of the poorest in the country and I would say
99 percent are unemployed. They cannot afford to buy new uniforms
for the old schools, much less for the new schools that they are
being put into – what is going to happen to those children?
The HIV rate
in Hatcliffe Extension is much higher than it is in the country
as a whole. A total of 40 to 45 percent people are HIV positive
and many of those people were on anti-retrovirals or other forms
of medication for other ailments. Indeed, there were three institutions
in Hatcliffe Extension dealing with both displaced children and
AIDS patients. One of the institutions called Tariro was set up
by Dominican Sisters and catered for 180 AIDS orphans by providing
both food and medication for the children and their extended families.
Now, the Dominican Sisters cannot find those people so they are
not receiving their medication, and we are talking of orphans.
There was another
orphanage, Batsirai, which again deals with AIDS orphans and school
fees but because of the displacements, these people do not know
were these children are. It is almost like Hatcliffe has been bombed
and everyone is running away. There was another project funded by
Soroptomists, an international women’s group, for disabled children,
a respite centre so that their parents could leave the children
there to go to town to attend other business. Again it has been
destroyed down to the ground.
I would beg,
particularly the women Members of Parliament and everyone else here,
to think about those affected families. 45 percent of the families
are of course female headed families and those women have to bear
the brunt of all this destruction. I would also like to remind the
House that in 2001, the First Lady, Grace Mugabe, celebrated her
30th birthday in Hatcliffe Extension and at the time
adopted Zambuko School. She adopted all the children at the school.
Now, we are wondering what has happened to those children adopted
by the First Lady.
The Dominican
Sisters had also sunk eight boreholes in the area – who is going
to benefit from those boreholes now? The destruction is horrific
and I beg the House to consider the astronomical costs which we
will have to bear in the reconstruction of the buildings and institutions,
because we now have families that have been separated and their
homes destroyed.
At national
level, the International Organisation for Migration which is in
the United Nations family and has offices here in Zimbabwe, is trying
to collect data and to assist as far as it is allowed by the Government.
It announced yesterday that 64,000 families have been rendered homeless
and that worked out to approximately 330,000 people. They have only
been able to assist 9,000 families – so we have 55,000 families
which at the moment as far as we know, are not receiving any assistance
whatsoever for food, medication, shelter and school fees. Multiply
that by six, which is the average, that is an awful lot of people
who are destitute and made destitute by this Government in this
so called ‘Operation Murambtsvina’.
The sectors
affected by ‘Murambatsvina’ include the home seekers, informal
traders, vendors, home industries and street kids – [HON. MEMBERS:
Inaudible interjections]
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER:
Order, please keep it down.
MISS STEVENSON:
Hon Mushoriwa did refer to some of the legal instruments which had
not been adhered to in this operation. I can remind Members that
in Section 199 of the Urban Councils Act, there is a requirement
to give people notice of twenty-eight days, even if they are going
to destroy their properties. You are supposed to give them 28 days
notice so that they can make alternative arrangements.
This notice
was not adhered to, Madam Speaker. You said that you do not accept
newspaper cuttings but in The Herald there was an advertisement,
I think it was on the 25th of May. The big notice was
inserted by the City of Harare, giving people until the 20th
of June to regularize their properties or to remove them. I beg
your pardon, the advert was placed on the 26th of May
and the very next day, the police went to Hatcliffe Extension and
razed the houses to the ground on the very night of this advertisement.
In my view,
the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and that
is very misleading…
This is actually
criminal, in my view, to tell people that by 20th June
they will go about destroying their houses and then do it before.
It does not make sense. It is inhumane and it is unacceptable.
In our constitution
– I would again remind hon. Members if they are not familiar with
the Constitution, that we have certain fundamental rights enshrined
in our Constitution. These include life, liberty, security of the
person, protection of the law, protection of the privacy of your
home and other property and from compulsory acquisition and protection
from inhumane treatment. In my view, to force a person, a child
– 20% of these people are child-headed households – at gunpoint
to destroy their own home, the only shelter that they have, in winter,
without having thought to provide an alternative before you do that,
it is unconstitutional. In my view, this is inhuman.
I recall that
the last Parliament resolved and adopted a resolution which was
propped in a motion that I moved to upgrade Hatcliffe Extension
Holding Camp to provide it with proper housing, roads, electricity,
running water and so forty, That resolution was adopted by this
House but nothing happened. The government did not respect the resolution
of Parliament, and the people were still there. These are the very
people that are affected by this Operation Murambatsvina.
I need to remind members that it was a unanimous decision and no
one voted against that resolution. These people are now homeless.
I would like
to re-emphasize the requirements of the International Covenant on
the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights that "states must
ensure that prior to carrying out any evictions, before evicting,
all feasible alternatives are explored in consultation with the
affected persons." I have not heard of any single consultation
carried out with any of those people and all those 64,000 families
as to what might be a better solution. They were not given a choice.
We have also previously ignored conventions to which we are signatories.
It is shameful.
Speaking of
reconstruction – the Government speaks proudly and members on the
opposite side speak proudly of how they have sourced cement, bricks
and the building brigades – which is the green bombers. On ZTV two
nights ago, the Minister of Local Government was proudly showing
four houses that have been built since this operation started. Those
houses were not complete and they had no roofs. They have only built
four houses in three and a half weeks. How are we going to build
64,000 houses any time soon? It is going to be an impossibility.
In my view,
this operation is very similar to the Pol Pot operation in Cambodia,
of driving out the urban people into rural areas so that they cannot
organize themselves to challenge the regime. In my view, this is
the truth. It has nothing to do with a clean-up operation.
The victims
of this operation are being treated like criminals. They are not
criminals. They are human beings. They have dignity and they have
rights just like you and me. We need to treat them like human beings.
Last week, we had an International Day of the Child, and the International
Day of the Family, but the children and families of our antion are
suffering grievous indignity and inhuman treatment as I speak. Members
of my constituency are asking: "this Murambatsvina,
what is the tsvina? Is it my house or is it me?" – (Laughter)
There is some serious psychological trauma. People are being called
filth, and are being swept away like a pile of dung. In my view,
this is not worthy of any single citizen of this country. We should
be ashamed that any Zimbabwean can treat another single person like
that, no matter what party, tribe, race, religion, or age, ability
or disability, sickness or health. Nobody should suffer the indignities
that people of Zimbabwe have suffered the last three and a half
weeks.
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