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Murambatsvina: Lest we forget
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR)
May 20, 2010

The Coalition Against Forced Evictions (CAFÉ) on Thursday 20 May 2010 petitioned the government to acknowledge the devastation caused by the controversial Operation Murambatsvina and to assist victims and survivors of the widely condemned "clean-up campaign" that left more than 700 000 people homeless.

CAFÉ is an alliance of Non Governmental Organisations consisting of Amnesty International Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR), Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA), Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) and victims and survivors of Operation Murambatsvina from Hatcliffe Extension, Hopley Farm and Gunhill informal settlement.

CAFÉ handed over the petition to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai at his Munhumutapa offices.

The petition implored the government to acknowledge responsibility for displacing people and to take action to protect hundreds of thousands of people abandoned to survive in substandard settlements five years after the mass forced evictions and demolition of housing and informal trading structures.

CAFÉ urged the government to provide adequate alternative accommodation or compensation to victims of the clean up campaign who were left homeless and jobless.

The Prime Minister, who acknowledged the widespread displacement of people through Operation Murambatsvina, pledged to set up an inter-ministerial committee comprising of Ministers of National Housing and Social Amenities; Education, Sport, Arts and Culture; Health and Child Welfare; and Local Government, Urban and Rural Development, which will craft a government response to victims and survivors of forced evictions, to be discussed and endorsed by Cabinet. On its part, CAFÉ undertook to present a comprehensive report on the communities affected and recommendations for redress to government.

President Robert Mugabe's previous administration began demolishing informal settlements across the country on 18 May 2005. The demolitions and evictions affected more than 700 000 people who were left without a home or livelihood or both. Most people were driven deeper into poverty by the forced evictions.

Although the government embarked on a re-housing programme, known as Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle later in 2005, purportedly to provide shelter for the victims, the programme was a dismal failure and now appears to have been abandoned.

On Tuesday 18 May 2010 - 5 years to the day on which the evictions commenced - CAFÉ said it is a scandal that, five years on, victims of Operation Murambatsvina are still surviving in plastic shacks without basic essential services. The coalition said the needs of victims of the clean-up campaign are at risk of being forgotten because their voices are consistently ignored.

The coalition said people affected by Operation Murambatsvina have rapidly become invisible; forced to relocate to rural areas, absorbed into existing overcrowded urban housing or pushed into government designated settlements. Those still in cities remain at risk of further forced evictions with no security of tenure.

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