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This article participates on the following special index pages:
Operation Murambatsvina - Countrywide evictions of urban poor - Index of articles
Outrage
as fresh 'Murambatsvina' hits Harare
The Standard (Zimbabwe)
September 17, 2006
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=11&id=4803
A new wave of
evictions is taking place in Harare – more than a year after Operation
Murambatsvina left nearly one million people homeless.
Harare municipal
police and officers from the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) have
been involved in the fresh wave, which is targeting vending stalls,
houses and shops, which survived Murambatsvina last year.
Just recently,
police and council workers pounced on Glen View Suburb, destroying
tuck shops and cottages.
Residents in
the high-density suburb were surprised when they woke up on a Thursday
morning to see about 15 baton-stick wielding municipal police and
five ZRP officers pulling down tuck shops.
When The Standard
visited the site in Glen View 1, former shop owners with the help
of residents were trying to recover asbestos sheets, bricks and
electrical gadgets from the rubble.
A livid Terrence
Mukuti said: "They did not give us time to remove our property –
only 48 hours to vacate.
"How are we
going to survive? Do they want us to become thieves?"
Glen View, generally
regarded as an opposition Movement for Democratic Change stronghold,
has in the past been targeted by the council and government.
Last year anti-riot
police went on the rampage beating up people after residents mobilised
themselves and revolted against the clean-up operation.
A resident,
Taurai Saukeni, said it was unfortunate that even with the high
levels of unemployment and acute housing shortages, the government
was still determined to inflict more suffering of its people.
William Nhara,
the outspoken Zanu PF Harare provincial spo-kesperson promised comment
but had not done so by the time of going to print.
Percy Toriro,
Harare City Council public relations manager, confirmed the operation
in Glen View but insisted it was not another Operation Murambatsvina.
He said: "It
is not Murambatsvina again but a routine enforcement of existing
and standing regulations.
"However, we
understand the need to provide proper trading places so that we
avoid confrontation with vendors. We are seriously pushing relevant
departments for that."
A week ago,
police knocked down temporary homes in Epworth.
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