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The persecution of the homeless in Harare
Combined Harare Residents' Association (CHRA)
March 02, 2004

CHRA condemns the arbitrary and authoritarian crackdown on homeless people in Harare last week. We do not believe that this action was carried out on the instructions of the elected councillors but rather by the de facto mayor of Harare, Town Clerk Chideya. Again we call upon councillors to assert the power given to them by the citizens of Harare and to put the municipal employees to work for the benefit of all of us.

The ill-thought conceived 'plan' has no logical justification and is typical of a facile and symptom-based approach to urban governance - get rid of the manifestations of a problem and hope the cause will disappear! Unfortunately such an approach doesn't work.

Even a cursory analysis of the issue of 'street people' will show that few, if any, are on the streets through choice. The majority have been forced by circumstances to seek the support of the wealthier members of society by begging. Circumstances such as the massive economic collapse precipitated by the Mugabe regime's disastrous economic policies and its so-called 'land reform' programme which has lead to massive rural-to-urban migration by displaced farm workers and impoverished people. Circumstances such as the HIV/AIDS catastrophe which has robbed families of breadwinners and which is destroying the extended family support network.

Zimbabwe is facing a humanitarian disaster that requires remedial action and sympathetic solutions, not knee-jerk responses that do nothing but persecute the voiceless and satisfy the shallow aims of reactionaries who care little for humanity. This crackdown is typical of the regime's policies. Remember the clean up for CHOGM in 1992 and the removal of street people to Porta Farm - supposedly a 'temporary' holding camp but a horrendous slum to this day.

Instead of this pointless and horrific action (which has reportedly resulted in the death of 5 people), the City would be well advised to carry out a comprehensive audit of the problem and, through a consultative approach, develop systematic and realistic strategies to ameliorate the situation. There are many people working through churches and other social groups who can contribute their energies and ideas to this problem.

Councillors should guard against surrendering their mandate to unelected municipal employees who have dubious loyalties to the residents of Harare and who appear to answer to another master. We elected councillors to promote our interests, not their own; half-way through their term of office, we have little to show for our struggles to restore democracy to Harare's Town House.

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