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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Respite
and protection for Epworth residents facing renewed threats of eviction
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
April 19, 2006
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights (ZLHR) has obtained an order in the High Court
of Zimbabwe protecting persons in Epworth who had been threatened
with eviction. Further, the court has ordered that the Epworth Local
Board not seek payment of money from residents save lawful rates
and water charges. The court also ordered the Epworth Local Board
to reconnect water points which they apparently destroyed during
Operation
Murambatsvina as well as connect our client’s home to the water
system as the place was already serviced.
Background
The
Epworth Local Board has, since holding a meeting around the 19th
of March 2006, been demanding payment of sums of about sixteen million
five hundred thousand dollars ($16 500 000.00) from residents of
Epworth, in particular those who reside in the Overspill area. The
Board threatened all those who did not pay these sums with eviction
from the area as such failure was purported to constitute a failure
to live in an urban area and those who had failed to pay were told
they would be forced to go to the rural areas. The Overspill area
of Epworth was apparently serviced over 10 years ago through the
benevolence of a non-governmental organisation, Plan International.
The Epworth Local Board has since then failed to cause the connection
of water for the residents of the area despite repeated requests.
On demanding payment of the sixteen million five hundred thousand
dollar ($16 500 000.00) sum noted above, the Board also stated that
only those who paid this sum would have their water supplies connected.
The residents
later received letters from the Epworth Local Board requesting that
they come to the Local Board’s offices and the sums stated at this
meeting were variously endorsed on the letters as service fees,
stand allocation deposits and by various other titles. It remains
unclear what these sums were for and why they were to be paid. If
they were deposits, this confusion is further compounded by the
lack of knowledge as to how much in total should be paid.
On the 5th of
April 2006, ZLHR filed an urgent chamber application in the High
Court of Zimbabwe at Harare on behalf of Winnie Chiwashira, an affected
resident of Overspill in Epworth, seeking an interdict against eviction
and compelling the Epworth Local Board to open water points in Epworth
as the well-being of Epworth residents was affected negatively by
the threats of eviction and failure to access clean water. The matter
was set down for the 10th of April 2006.
The Epworth
Local Board, having been served with the papers, failed to appear
to defend the matter. An order was therefore granted against the
board barring them from evicting the residents or threatening them
with eviction and compelling the Board to open water points in Epworth
as well as connect our client’s home to the water supply system.
It is clear
that there was and is no basis for the local authority to claim
these amounts from the residents of Epworth. Indeed, Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights finds cause for concern in the actions of various
local authorities which have continued to claim amounts of money
from innocent and often uninformed people particularly in the aftermath
of Operation Murambatsvina even though these authorities know fully
well that these claims are unlawful.
It is also sad
to note that threats to the residents’ health occasioned by the
failure to connect their water supplies is being used by a local
authority as fodder for making extortive claims. These actions constitute
a gross abuse of power.
These threats
of eviction and non-connection of water supplies are a direct impingement
upon the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals as protected
under international law and are also a contravention of obligations
assumed under various international instruments to which Zimbabwe
is a state party. Further, such actions flout various local statutes
relating to the health of the public and the protection of the environment
as well as a complete abrogation of the legal procedures open to
local authorities when they seek to make claims from the public.
Zimbabwe Lawyers
for Human Rights therefore calls upon the Minister of Local Government,
the Epworth Local Board and other local authorities to immediately
bring an end to such conduct as this where unlawful claims are made
on the public which is already burdened by the increasingly difficult
socio-economic conditions and still haunted by the continued impact
of losses incurred under Operation Murambatsvina. These parties
are also called upon to respect the rights of the citizenry to hold
their property. It is incumbent on local authorities by virtue of
their very positions that they should pay the greatest respect to
the health and well-being of persons within their locality.
In the meantime
ZLHR would like to make individuals who find themselves in similar
circumstances aware of their legal rights as determined in the previously
mentioned court case and urges them to insist that such rights are
respected by any renegade local authorities or individuals purporting
to act on their behalf. Any action to the contrary should be reported
to local residents’ associations and/or ZLHR offices in Harare for
further action.
Visit the ZLHR
fact sheet
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