BBC
UN criticises Zimbabwe slum blitz
A UN envoy visiting
Zimbabwe has said that the authorities could have
taken steps to minimise
the human impact of a controversial slum clearing
programme.
Anna
Tibaijuka told the BBC that while urban development was
important, the
government should have followed better procedures to avoid
human
misery.
Her visit follows international anger over the demolitions,
which have
left an estimated 275,000 people homeless.
Officials
say the moves are aimed at removing criminals and reviving
cities.
Ms Tibaijuka said she would submit her report to the UN
secretary
general, Kofi Annan.
Her visit coincides with
Amnesty International reports that three more
people have died during the
clearances.
On Thursday Ms Tibaijuka visited the Porta Farm site
where two women -
one pregnant - and a boy were reportedly killed, but said
she was unable to
confirm the report.
Over breakfast with
thousands of former residents of another site at
Caledonia Farm, she said
something had to be done for the displaced people.
"I think
it was very clear that they all seem anxious to get their
lives improved,"
she said, quoted by AFP news agency.
"When I asked them if they
were happy, I got a resounding no. So
definitely there are challenges that
we have to sort out," she said, quoted
by AFP news agency, after visiting
the Caledonia Farm site.
In a separate move, the World Food
Programme (WFP) said Zimbabwe's
current food shortages made it one of the
most worrying countries in the
world.
Dialogue
call
The demolition programme began a month ago. At least three
other
children have been killed during the operation.
Thousands of the displaced people are now living on the streets, while
others have gone back to rural areas, and some have moved into unaffected
parts of the cities.
UN Security Council members criticised the
demolitions.
Britain's ambassador to the UN, Emyr Jones-Parry, said
the government
was to blame for many of the problems facing
Zimbabwe.
Acting US ambassador Anne Patterson said America was
deeply concerned
about the demolition scheme and urged the government to
begin a dialogue
with the opposition.
Meanwhile South African
has hit back at accusations that it has been
silent about Zimbabwe's
problems.
"President Thabo Mbeki has been very clear on this - he
went to
Zimbabwe twice, and in the presence of President Mugabe expressed
his
displeasure about things that were going on in Zimbabwe," South African
presidential spokesman Bheki Khumalo told the BBC.
"The notion
that we have not spoken out is not true.
CNN
U.N. envoy meets Zimbabwe homeless
Friday, July 1, 2005;
Posted: 3:58 p.m. EDT (19:58 GMT)
CALEDONIA FARM, Zimbabwe (Reuters) --
A U.N. envoy met some of the 300,000
Zimbabweans left homeless by the
government's demolition of their shanty
homes, but had little to offer them
on Friday other than bread and fruit
juice.
A crackdown on shanty towns
the government says were a haven for illegal
trade and crime has resulted in
several deaths from falling rubble and
accidents with vehicles involved in
the operation, rights groups say.
Anna Tibaijuka, sent by U.N.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, visited a camp at
Caledonia Farm, a former
commercial farm 25 km (16 miles) southeast of
Harare, where 4,000 people
have been moved after their homes were destroyed.
Tibaijuka, a Tanzanian,
walked among makeshift tents made from plastic bags
as men, women and small
children huddled around small fires, trying to keep
out the winter morning
chill.
"The challenges are quite enormous so we have to work together to
improve
the situation for everybody," said Tibaijuka, who met President
Robert
Mugabe on Wednesday for what she said afterward had been constructive
discussions.
But meeting the homeless on Friday, Tibaijuka had little
immediate relief
except for bread and fruit juice her entourage brought the
camp's residents
for breakfast.
"It is very clear they all seem to be
anxious to get ... things improved ...
when I asked were they happy, I got a
resounding 'No'. Definitely there are
challenges that we have to work out,"
Tibaijuka said.
A group of women sat away from where breakfast was on
offer, saying they
wanted a place to stay rather than food
handouts.
Ronia Nziramasanga wiped away tears as she told how her sister
killed
herself after her home was demolished, leaving five children now in
the care
of their aunt.
"A lot of people here are sick, some with
HIV/AIDS. What is going to happen
to them once they are thrown in the rural
areas where they can't access help
from aid groups?"
On Thursday,
Amnesty International and Action Aid said at least three
people, including a
pregnant woman and a child, had been killed when police
razed scores of
houses at a squatter camp near Harare, which Tibaijuka
visited late
Thursday.
Police could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Two
children died in early June as their home was bulldozed.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF
government, which extended its 25-year grip on power by
another five years
in March elections the opposition said were rigged,
rejects criticism of the
demolitions.
It says the exercise is meant to rid Zimbabwe of settlements
which are hives
of illegal trade in scarce hard currency and
food.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change says well over 1.5
million
people have been displaced and that the crackdown is meant to punish
its
supporters in the urban strongholds where it kept most of its
parliamentary
seats.
The United States and European nations raised
Zimbabwe's housing demolitions
in the U.N. Security Council for the first
time on Thursday, using a debate
on extreme hunger in southern Africa to get
the issue on the agenda.
UN envoy confirms reports of deaths
[ This report does not necessarily
reflect the views of the United Nations]
JOHANNESBURG, 1 Jul 2005
(IRIN) - A spokesman for the special UN envoy
evaluating the impact of the
controversial demolition of informal
settlements in Zimbabwe confirmed on
Friday that they had received reports
of "two or three" deaths in areas
where evictions had been carried out.
"But we are yet to establish
whether the deaths were circumstantial or as a
direct result of the
demolition", said Sharad Shankardass, spokesman for the
UN
Secretary-General's special envoy, Anna Tibaijuka.
The human rights NGO,
Amnesty International, said on Thursday it had
received information that at
least three people, including a pregnant woman
and a four-year-old child,
had died during a mass eviction of at least
10,000 people from Porta Farm,
an informal settlement on the outskirts of
the capital, Harare, established
by the government more than 10 years ago.
"Over the last 48 hours, Porta
Farm - a settlement of at least 10,000
people - has been obliterated. People
have watched their lives being
completely destroyed, and many are now being
forcibly removed in trucks by
police. At the moment we are not sure where
they are being taken," the
Director of Amnesty International's Africa
Programme, Kolawole Olaniyan,
said in a statement on
Thursday.
Speaking to IRIN from Zimbabwe, Shankardass said Tibaijuka had
visited Porta
Farm after the demolitions and met with the affected people to
get their
version of the events.
"She has also asked for a detailed
report from the government and the MP
responsible for the area," he
added.
Shankardass pointed out that Tibaijuka was in Zimbabwe to conduct
an
"impartial evaluation - she is not here to endorse anybody's actions. At
the
end of her trip she will make her own assessment, which she will then
present to the UN Secretary-General".
Tibaijuka arrived in Harare on
Sunday and later in the week met with
President Robert Mugabe, who allowed
her to "go anywhere she wanted," he
noted.
On Thursday the UN envoy
met with local and international NGOs providing
humanitarian
aid.
Meanwhile Alpha Oumar Konare, Chairperson of the African Union
Commission,
has designated Bahame Tom Nyanduga, a member of the African
Commission on
Human and Peoples' Rights, Special Rapporteur Responsible for
Refugees,
Asylum Seekers and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, to
carry out a
fact-finding mission in Zimbabwe that began on 30 June and will
conclude on
4 July.
Nyanduga is expected to meet with the Zimbabwean
authorities and relevant
human rights organisations and inspect areas where
evictions and demolitions
have taken place.
The government started
its crackdown on informal settlements and traders
over a month ago, arguing
that the exercise was meant to rid urban centres
of criminal
activities.
Human rights groups and the international community have
condemned the
campaign, which has left over 320,000 people homeless.
Mail and Guardian
Zim's slums resemble battle scenes
Fanuel Jongwe | Porta Farm, Zimbabwe
01 July 2005
11:13
Porta Farm, a well-known slum west of Zimbabwe's
capital Harare,
resembled a village hit by an aerial attack as it was
visited late on
Thursday by United Nations special envoy Anna
Tibaijuka.
At least three people have been killed here, the
latest target
of a blitz against crime and squalor by Zimbabwean police,
said witnesses
and Amnesty International.
Mounds of brick
rubble, plastic sheeting, broken asbestos and
iron roofing and smashed
furniture were all that remained of the homes of 1
500 families at Porta
Farm, whose residents were moved here from various
parts of the capital
ahead of Queen Elizabeth II's visit in 1991.
"We are dirt as
far as the government is concerned," Samson
Banda told Tibaijuka as she
walked around the settlement pervaded by a
mixture of anger, disillusionment
and betrayal.
"If you can, please ask our leaders what crime
we have committed
to deserve such punishment," one young woman requested the
United Nations
envoy.
"They brought us here saying they
would build us houses. But we
have known nothing but torture and harassment
for all the 16 years we have
been here," she said.
Another woman asked the UN to "please help us or just bury us
alive if they
can't help us."
Women were preparing food on open fires among
the debris while
some families were trying to piece together remnants of
broken furniture
when the UN envoy visited the shanty town, once home to
some 10 000 people.
Witnesses said at least three people were
killed when police
moved in with bulldozers to flatten the country's best
known slum while a
woman gave birth in the open after her shack was
razed.
A woman identified as Jane Peter showed the UN envoy a
two-month-old baby who was abandoned by her mother in the ensuing
melee.
"This child has been crying since morning. We don't
know where
the mother is," she said.
"Maybe she has been
taken away by the police." Many complained
that the police destroyed their
furniture and were forcing them on to trucks
heading to a transit camp
called Caledonia, set up by the government for
families displaced by
the
clean-up campaign.
"Please help us because
the police are just beating us up and
forcing us to Caledonia," said Wilson
Phiri.
"We see on television there is no food. This morning
they took
away two children to force their mother to follow them to the
camp."
Tibaijuka told the residents: "I am sorry about this
...
situation but we are going to work together to find a permanent
solution."
The Zimbabwean government attempted to clear Porta
Farm last
September using tear gas and excessive force during which at least
11 people
died, Amnesty International said in a statement reporting three
new deaths.
The UN estimates that 200 000 people have lost
their homes since
police started the two-pronged "Operation Restore Order"
and "Operation
Murambatsvina" six weeks ago, flattening backyard shops and
stalls across
the southern African country.
The
opposition says the number of homeless is closer to
1,5-million, while tens
of thousands had been arrested and charged for
various
offences.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan last week sent
Tibaijuka to
Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian impact of the demolitions
and the
clean-up campaign.
She held talks with President
Robert Mugabe on Wednesday and
visited areas affected.
Mugabe said afterwards that the demolitions had been planned
well in
advance, and the government was setting aside $333-million to build
new
homes.-Sapa-AFP
Mbare Report No. 13, 1 July
2005,
WHERE HAVE ALL THE CARPENTERS
GONE?
People are queuing for food, for
registering their names to be taken to their rural homes, for blankets and
plastic sheeting. People appear to exist only in large crowds, as numbers on
identity cards. If you don’t join the right queue at the right time you are
ignored. There is a danger to overlook the individual with her very particular
problem and peculiar way of telling her story.
Mbuya (Grannie) Chibango is left
alone in this world. All her family have died, except for one daughter. She has
not washed for days since she sleeps on an open ground near her old demolished
home, and she has no soap. Her clothes are dirty, her hair unkempt. She has not
eaten ‘sadza’, the staple diet, for days. We have organized the food
distribution in an orderly fashion, one neighbourhood group after the other, but
she cannot wait that long. She must be attended to now.
Hundreds are queuing in front of
the municipal offices to apply for stands which government has promised to the
homeless. Just for applying they have to pay $ 120 000 dollars; once they are
really allocated a stand $ 500 000. Will it ever happen? Will we ever see real
houses being built? And where are people going to stay in the meantime?
This morning I went to the
Missionaries of Charity of Mother Theresa who gather in the rejects of society,
old people without any family to support them in their remaining days. Mbuya
Chakoroma is among them. Originally she lived in a nice little house on
Mushongandebvu Walk in Mbare. Then her husband died, and his family sold the
house, leaving her homeless. She survived in a wooden shack in “Jo-burg lines”.
When her eldest son died she had no money to bury him. The corpse stayed for two
days in the shack until the local church intervened and buried him. Then her
other son died as well leaving two children. Now they demolished the one room
she had rented and left her hungry, penniless and cold on the street. The
Sisters picked her up and gave her a home. They gather in what the powers that
be (“cruel and inhuman” – Zim Bishops) scatter.
Some years ago the President said
some beautiful words about Mother Theresa’s charity after he had attended a
Memorial Mass for her. Has he completely forgotten?
The “Operation Restore Order”
leaves only chaos, and the “Operation Clean-up” leaves only rubble and dirt,
uncollected refuse and heaps of debris.
I hope the UN envoy Anna
Tibaijuka sees all this.
What she cannot see because it
has disappeared without a trace is the Koefman open air carpentry workshop on
the corner Machingura Street/Harare Road, Mbare. For decades skilled carpenters
were producing good quality furniture on this piece of open ground: wardrobes,
cupboards, kitchen units, chairs, tables. And coffins. (Signs advertising
“Coffins for Sale” were up at every street corner, and there was a ready market
for them. AIDS made sure of that).
Now Koefman’s has been buried as
well, a victim of state terrorism.
Where have all the carpenters
gone? How will they survive? Making coffins in
their bedrooms, so the police will not see them, and selling them by
night? Most likely.
Oskar Wermter SJ
Government hides victims from envoy
By Violet
Gonda
1st July 2005
The UN's special envoy, Mrs Anna
Tibaijuka, headed for Manicaland
Province Friday for an open meeting with
the public and local authorities.
But the government is desperate to "sweep
its dirt under the carpet," and it
was reported that scores of people who
were evicted from their homes in
Sakubva Township in Mutare and had been
moved to a holding camp called
Sports Oval, were evicted Friday
morning.
The Mayor of Mutare Mischeck Kagurabadza, who was
preparing for Mrs
Tibaijuka's visit, confirmed that the people were evicted
from the holding
camp. He said there is great concern for the families'
plight as their
whereabouts are now not known.
Over a thousand
families were dumped at this holding camp since the
evictions started on May
28th. Mutare councillors said that people were
living under appalling
conditions. The Red Cross had originally supplied
tents for the people but
the police force took over the whole operation and
separated the families
and distributed the tents into male and female
groups.
Many people
were also sleeping out in the cold as the tents were not
enough for
everyone. Pishai Muchauraya, MDC Information Officer for
Manicaland
province, said the latest evictions are a deliberate move by the
authorities, as they knew that the situation at the holding camp would have
serious consequences if the UN envoy had seen how people were
living.
The envoy also passed through Rusape township and met with
local
authorities and members of the public before going to the eastern
border
town. Observers say the visits by Mrs Tibaijuka are so far
encouraging as
she is making herself available to all stakeholders,
especially the victims.
Many feel that although the government is trying to
do damage control the
envoy is not blinkered to what is going on. What
remains to be seen is
whether she records all these atrocities in her report
and what action the
United Nations will take. Meanwhile, it's reported that
in the first
indication of a reaction from African leaders to Mugabe's
campaign, the
African Commission, the administrative arm of the African
Union, said that
it was sending Tom Nyanduga, its rapporteur on refugees, to
Zimbabwe to
investigate.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Zanu PF official to resign over demolitions
By Lance Guma
01 July 2005
Zanu PF Central Committee Member and former MP for
Zvishavane, Pearson
Mbalekwa, is set to resign from the party in protest at
the ongoing
operation 'Murambatsvina'. Sources in Zimbabwe say Mbalekwa, who
is cousin
to Emmerson Mnangagwa, a bitter rival to Zimbabwe's current Vice
President,
is presenting the resignation to Zanu PF on Friday. The Zimbabwe
Independent
newspaper is reported to have already obtained a copy of the
resignation
letter.
The senior official, who is a former
intelligence chief, is apparently
unhappy at the wanton destruction of homes
belonging to the poor. He says
the idea is ill-conceived and has caused the
suffering of many innocent
people. Mbalekwa added that he was also not happy
with the general lack of
governance in the country. Luke Tamborinyoka,
Deputy News Editor of the
banned Daily News, says the resignation is a sign
of things to come.
A grouping of Zanu PF politicians backing
Mnangagwa's bid for the
presidency were watching silently, as the camp led
by Vice President Joyce
Mujuru are openly supporting the police clampdown.
The rift in Zanu PF is
set to widen as one camp seeks to undermine the
other. Tamborinyoka predicts
the emergence of a third force from the ashes
of a collapsed Zanu PF, led by
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
SW Radio
Africa Zimbabwe news
Porta farm deaths update
By Violet Gonda
1st July
2005
There were varying reports of the number of people that died
at Porta
Farm Thursday after security forces used brutal force to demolish
the homes
of about 12 000 people.
Detailed reports have now
emerged of the deaths. Otto Saki, from
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights who
went to Norton to help the victims'
families get burial orders, told SW
Radio Africa that 3 people are confirmed
dead. Residents at the farm and
human rights organisations on Thursday had
originally said four people died
after a women, who was heavily pregnant,
collapsed when riot police forced
people to board trucks to Caledonia Farm.
The United Nations
special envoy Anna Tibaijuka, executive director of
Habitat, the UN agency
for the homeless, found herself in the midst of the
debris and tragic
aftermath of the demolitions at Porta Farm Thursday.
Its reported
that the envoy was touched by the enormity of what
greeted her at the
informal settlement that she was seen cradling a sickly
14-day-old baby in
her arms. The Times newspaper reports Tibaijuka saying,
"This is a very sad
situation," as a crowd, mostly of women, appealed to
her: "You are our
saviour - we cannot stand this suffering any longer."
Porta Farm
falls under Manyame constituency, a seat that is held by
Patrick Zhuwawo,
Robert Mugabe's nephew. Eyewitnesses told SW Radio Africa
that he tried to
do damage control by going to the farm when he heard the
envoy was there.
But the situation became tense, especially when residents
saw his entourage
taking down people's names.
It's reported that Tibaijuka has
privately expressed severe criticism
of Mugabe's "Operation Murambatsvina"
which is estimated to have made a
million people homeless in six
weeks.
Porta Farm has been an informal settlement since 1991, when
authorities dumped squatters there. Most of the residents had court orders
barring the government from evicting them. But police have ignored these
orders.
SW Radio Africa Zimbabwe news
Zim Online
African Union bows to pressure over Zimbabwe evictions
Sat
2 July 2005
HARARE - The African Union (AU) is sending an envoy to assess
President
Robert Mugabe's controversial urban clean-up drive, apparently
bowing to
mounting pressure by the international community to intervene in
Zimbabwe.
AU chief spokesman Desmond Orjiako last week told
journalists at the
union's head office in Ethiopia that the organisation was
not going to
interfere with Mugabe's clean-up drive because it was an
internal matter
outside its purview.
But AU Commission
Chairman, Alpha Konare, backtracked this week when
he announced that he was
sending an envoy, Balame Tom Nyandanga, to Harare
to probe and assess the
impact of Mugabe's demolition of shanty towns that
has left close to a
million poor people living in the open without food or
clean
water.
.
Nyandanga, who is the AU Commission
on Human and People's Rights
special rapporteur for refugees, asylum seekers
and displaced people on the
continent, is visiting Zimbabwe a week after a
United Nations envoy began
probing the mass evictions.
The AU
envoy was expected in Harare on Thursday and was expected to
finish his
mission by Monday next week, according to a statement released
from Konare's
Addis Ababa office. But ZimOnline was yesterday unable to
establish whether
Nyandanga had arrived in the country.
According to Konare, his
envoy will meet "Zimbabwe authorities and
relevant human rights
organisations." He shall also visit Harare's Mbare
low-income suburb where
the giant Mupedzanhamo and Siyaso informal market
and industry sites were
razed to the ground by police bulldozers.
Nyandanga will travel to
Chitungwiza city, south-east of Harare where
two people were crushed to
death in their houses by police bulldozers. He
will also visit the destroyed
Hatcliffe squatter camp north of Harare and
the crowded Caledonia holding
camp, east of the capital where 4 000 people
are living in the open after
being dumped there by the police.
The European Union, United States
and international human rights
groups had strongly criticised the AU for
refusing to act saying the African
body could not keep silent in the face of
wanton human rights abuses by
Mugabe.
British Premier Tony
Blair, who is pushing for more aid and debt
relief for Africa by richer
nations, also said inaction by Africa's leaders
against Mugabe's rights
violations could scupper his efforts to win more aid
for the continent. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
Harare residents blame Mugabe for housing mess
Sat 2 July
2005
HARARE - Harare residents have told United Nations envoy Anna
Tibaijuka that the informal trading sector and shanty towns the government
was now destroying were a direct consequence of President Robert Mugabe's
mismanagement of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe's controversial farm seizures
only helped worsen the situation
as displaced farm workers flocked into
urban centres to survive on vending
while living in backyard cottages that
Mugabe has ordered police to
demolish, the Combined Harare Residents
Association (CHRA) said in its
submission to Tibaijuka.
"The
informal sector in Zimbabwe is a direct consequence of government
policies
and its economic mismanagement. It (informal sector) has always
been a
feature of Zimbabwean society and fulfils a vital role in supporting
the
marginalised poor," CHRA said.
The residents' group added that the
informal sector had expanded in
the nineties as factories closed after the
government's failed economic
reforms and that the sector ballooned in the
last five years as former
workers on white farms flocked into cities and
towns after their employers
were evicted by the government.
Tibaijuka is in Zimbabwe to probe and assess the impact of the
government's
clean-up campaign that has seen close to a million people
thrown into the
streets without food or water after their homes and informal
industries were
demolished by armed police and soldiers.
Mugabe says the clean-up
exercise is necessary to smash crime and to
restore the beauty of Zimbabwe's
cities. But the international community has
roundly condemned the five-week
operation that also saw more than 46 000
informal traders arrested as a
gross violation of poor people's rights.
The African Union (AU)
that had initially rejected calls to intervene
apparently had a change of
heart with AU Commission boss, Alpha Konare,
announcing this week that he
was sending an envoy to Harare to probe the
clean-up operation.
Zimbabwe is grappling its worst economic crisis since independence 25
years
ago and the United States and Britain on Thursday told the UN Security
Council that the mass evictions of poor urban families were only helping
worsen the situation in a country already threatened with mass
starvation.
About four million Zimbabweans or a quarter of the
country's 12
million people require urgent food aid or they will starve. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
ZANU PF ready to talk to MDC
Sat 2 July 2005
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU PF party says it is
ready to
resume stalled negotiations with the main opposition Movement for
Democratic
Change (MDC) party to find a solution to Zimbabwe's political and
economic
crisis.
ZANU PF spokesman Nathan Shamuyarira told ZimOnline
yesterday that the
party was prepared for unconditional talks with the
opposition brokered by
South African President Thabo Mbeki. He said: "ZANU
PF has never closed
doors for genuine dialogue with the opposition or anyone
for that matter."
Shamuyarira's comments come amid revelations by
South African media
this week that Mbeki was ready to resume his mediation
efforts in Zimbabwe
with a preparatory meeting between him and MDC President
Morgan Tsvangirai
lined for this weekend in Pretoria.
Pretoria's peace-making efforts in Zimbabwe appeared to have collapsed
after
the MDC two months ago said it was pulling out accusing South Africa
of
taking sides after it endorsed ZANU PF's victory in last March's disputed
general election.
But the spokesman for the Zimbabwean
opposition party Paul Themba
Nyathi confirmed Tsvangirai and secretary
general Welshman Ncube were
scheduled to meet Mbeki this weekend. He said
his party shall issue a
statement after the meeting.
Analysts
say only a negotiated and democratic settlement between
Zimbabwe's two most
powerful political parties could pave way for a solution
to the country's
worsening economic and political crisis.
Fuel, food, electricity,
essential medical drugs and hard cash are all
in critical short supply in
Zimbabwe now in its sixth year of economic
recession.
The
European Union, United States and key international donor and
development
agencies have ruled out assistance to Zimbabwe until Harare
restores
democracy, the rule of law and upholds human rights.
-ZimOnline
Zim Online
Doctors' strike ends
Sat 2 July 2005
HARARE -
The strike by junior and middle-ranking doctors in Zimbabwe
over the
country-wide fuel crisis ended yesterday after the government gave
in to
their demands.
The doctors who were complaining that they were
spending too much of
their time in fuel queues rather than attending to
patients in hospitals,
downed their tools on Tuesday to press the government
to provide them with
fuel to travel to work.
But yesterday, the
doctors were back in the wards after a meeting
between the 700-member
Hospital Doctors Association (HAD) and Health
Ministry officials late on
Thursday.
The president of the association, Takawira Chinyoka,
confirmed meeting
the government officials.
"The meeting was
very successful as the government assured us that we
would be allocated fuel
from Noczim (National Oil Company of Zimbabwe).
Doctors from Parirenyatwa
will get 5 000 litres. We are still concerned
though about the allocation
for doctors at Harare Central and Mpilo in
Bulawayo. The officials said the
issue of doctors at other hospitals will be
resolved next week," said
Chinyoka.
Contacted for comment, David Gora, the chief executive of
Parirenyatwa, who chaired the Thursday meeting said: "We have solved all the
sticky areas and the situation is back to normal at the hospitals which had
been affected."
Zimbabwe is in the grip of an acute fuel
shortage because there is no
hard cash to pay foreign
suppliers.
Zimbabwe's health delivery system is in crisis due to
years of
under-funding and mismanagement while the majority of the country's
trained
medical personnel have left the country to seek better paying jobs
abroad. -
ZimOnline
Zim Online
UN Security Council debates Zimbabwe evictions
Fri 1 July
2005
JOHANNESBURG - The United States and European nations
yesterday took
advantage of a debate on hunger in southern Africa to raise
Zimbabwe
President Robert Mugabe's controversial urban clean-up drive in the
United
Nations Security Council.
But unnamed diplomats quoted
by Reuters news agency said most council
members opposed debating Mugabe's
clean-up campaign saying it was an
internal matter and not an international
peace and security issue. The
African Union last week also refused to
censure Harare saying the mass
evictions were an internal matter outside its
purview.
More than 46 000 informal traders have been arrested in
the last five
weeks for selling goods without licence and between 300 000
and a million
poor people have been cast onto the streets after their shanty
homes in and
around cities were demolished in a campaign Mugabe says is
necessary to bust
crime and restore the beauty of Zimbabwe's cities and
towns.
A UN special envoy is currently in Zimbabwe
assessing the impact of
the mass evictions and how the world body could
intervene and help thousands
of children and their families living in the
open without food or clean
water.
Urging the council to review
Mugabe's evictions, British ambassador to
the UN, Emyr Jones Parry said: "Up
to 300 000 people have been made homeless
and thousands of children are
forced to abandon school ..it is important to
realise that this crisis has
been caused by the action of the Zimbabwean
government. It is man-made and
not a natural phenomenon."
Acting US UN representative Anne
Patterson said Washington was ready
to offer Zimbabwe large-scale food
assistance but was "strongly opposed" to
Harare's actions and policies that
were worsening the hunger crisis in the
southern African
nation.
Denmark and Greece were also critical of Zimbabwe while
France voiced
concern only about the food situation.
But Tuvako
Nathaniel Manogi, Tanzania's deputy UN ambassador,
criticised the UN for
doing little to help hunger-stricken parts of the
world pointing out that
food aid to the poorest nations was declining at a
time the number of hungry
people in those countries was on the rise.
Manogi mentioned his own
country which he said had repeatedly pleaded
for food aid without much
success although it was hosting a huge population
of refugees. "The archives
of this organisation are full of good intentions.
We are all better at
talking than acting," he said.
UN World Food Programme director
James Morris, who met Mugabe in
Harare last month to discuss food aid, told
the council that hunger and
HIV/AIDS had combined to create a greater
humanitarian crisis in southern
Africa than crises in Darfur, Afghanistan or
North Korea.
More than eight million people in southern Africa and
half of them in
Zimbabwe alone required urgent food aid, according to
Morris. At the
beginning of the year, the number of hungry people in the
region stood at
3.5 million.
Morris also said he had made it
clear to Mugabe, in the past accused
of withholding food to opposition
supporters, that the WFP and its
distribution partners would not accept
interference by Harare and will
distribute food to all hungry people. -
ZimOnline
"They will not
stop until they are stopped"
Judith Todd
Cape Town Press
Club
Thursday, June 30 2005.
1. I am glad of the greatly increased
and increasingly thoughtful coverage of Zimbabwe in South Africa over the past
fortnight because this means we can today move straight into trying to address
some of the concerns of Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad who says that the
South African Government is not ignoring events in Zimbabwe, but is at a loss as
to what to do.
"We are trying to find a solution, but the problem is that
we have done everything we possibly can. We can't work out what else is
expected of us." - Sunday Times, June 26 2005.
2.
Background.
Firstly, it would be helpful to clear up some confusion which
persists regarding the background of the Zanu (PF), Robert Mugabe regime. Just
last December, for example, the ANC expressed its unequivocal support for
Zanu
(PF) through former deputy secretary-general Henry Makgothi at Zanu
(PF)'s fourth congress when he said, reading from a prepared statement: "Our
national executive of the ANC and the people of South Africa are confident that
Zanu (PF), as a party of revolution, will continue to play a leading role to
assert the political and economic independence of Zimbabwe. As the ANC we take
pride in the bilateral relations that we have forged over the years of the
struggle .The ANC wishes to reiterate our firm support for the people of
Zimbabwe under the leadership of Zanu (PF)."
What was being blinked at
here was the fact that the bilateral relations forged during those years of
struggle had been between the ANC and ZAPU, under the leadership of Joshua
Nkomo, while ZANU, under the leadership of Robert Mugabe had stood with PAC, not
ANC, lonely and rejected on the outskirts of the OAU. Some also have missed the
significance of the progression of events since 1980 in Zimbabwe which went,
very briefly, as follows:
a. 1980 elections where Zanu (PF) kept
large numbers of their fighters out of the Assembly Points in order to ensure
victory through intimidation before people even got to the polls for Zimbabwe's
first ever elections.
b. From those elections onwards the
emasculation of Zapu's military wing, ZIPRA, under the Minister of Defence R.
G. Mugabe which went hand in hand with;
c. The crushing of ZAPU.
This repression escalated significantly from the beginning of 1982 with treason
charges being brought against the two top commanders of ZIPRA, Lookout Masuku
and Dumiso Dabengwa and other top military men and Zapu politicians. The same
tactics were used later against Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC.
d. The
deployment of the North Korean trained Fifth Brigade into sections of
Matabeleland and the Midlands where, apart from a general campaign of terror,
they were furnished with lists of people in Zapu structures to kill. As Robert
Mugabe said at the passing out parade of the Gukuruhundi Brigade December 1982,
"The knowledge you have acquired will make you work with the people, plough and
reconstruct. These are the aims you should keep in yourself". Plough and
reconstruct.
e. The 1985 elections which, although won by Zanu
(PF), did not give Mugabe a sufficient number of seats to change the
constitution as he wished. To punish those who voted against him he broadcast
in Shona urging his followers to go and rip the weeds from their gardens and
stump their fields which some of them did, burning houses and businesses of
perceived opponents and leaving over 2000 homeless in Matabeleland, Midlands and
Harare, and leaving scores dead. To punish the whites he sacked Denis Norman as
Minister of Agriculture.
f. The culmination of all these events
meant that by late 1987 the spine of ZAPU had been broken and "unity" achieved.
Mugabe was declared Executive President. ANC's old friend ZAPU was effectively
dead and those survivors of Zapu who remained or were forced to remain in the
hierarchy of Zanu (PF) were routed by the new opposition party MDC in the 2000
elections. SK Moyo, Zimbabwe's Ambassador now to South Africa was one of these,
humiliatingly defeated in his home constituency of Bulalima Mangwe on the
borders of Botswana. To punish those whom he thought had supported the MDC
Mugabe destroyed commercial agriculture and thus the economy of
Zimbabwe.
3. Deception.
By the skilful deployment as
top diplomats of people formerly identified with ZAPU and/or Joshua Nkomo like
SK Moyo to South Africa, Kotsho Dube to Nigeria, Report Phelekezela Mphoko to
Botswana Zanu (PF) have managed to
prolong the fiction of being old allies
from the struggle for liberation. In fact today's Zanu (PF) is nothing more than
a criminal mafia which has hijacked Zimbabwe. Many of its servants from the old
Zapu are used and kept in place today by a mixture of bribery, blackmail and
terror, forever having to look over their shoulders to see who is
listening.
That brief background serves only to illustrate that what is
happening today is nothing new. It is simply an intensified operation to get
rid of the last vestiges of perceived opponents now described by the head of
police Augustine Chihuri as a crawling mass of maggots. No one must allow
themselves to be deluded about what is going on in Zimbabwe. Just as
Gukuruhundi was designed to kill, so is Operation Murambatsvina. If, in bitter
winter, you deprive people and their children of shelter and thus also their
food and clothing and warmth; if you deprive them of their tools of trade and
their means of survival you do this for one reason only; you intend them to
die. As a report published in the UK Independent last week stated: "Aids,
starvation and depopulation of the cities is sending tens of thousands to a
silent death in the rural areas" where, jobless and homeless, they are waiting
to die. Daniel Howden was reporting from Brunapeg Hospital on the border of
Botswana from where help could still be made available to the dying people he
writes about, if the will was there to provide it. It was the Independent who
published the chilling statistic that already the death rate is outstripping the
birth rate by 4000 per week.
I remind you once more of the words of
Didymus Mutasa now Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Lands Reform
and Resettlement in the office of the President. In August 2002 he said "We
would be better off with only six
million people, with our own people who
support the liberation struggle. We don't want all these extra people."
They
have been planning Operation Murambatsvina for a long time. As Mugabe was
reported just this morning on South African radio it has been a campaign planned
well in advance and has been "a long cherished desire".
4.
Possible action
a. Recognise the fact that while those who continue to
oppose the regime from within Zimbabwe need all possible support they cannot be
expected to drive change internally because of:
i) the
destruction of the rule of law, the judiciary, the press and the
economy
ii) the brutalisation of the population including
both the victims and the perpetrators
iii) the consequences of
attrition. It is estimated that 70% of the 18-65 age group now live outside the
country
iv) they have no means of protecting
themselves
b. There should be no more solidarity of any kind with
Zanu (PF) and no more political cover - e.g. blocking efforts by the UN Human
Rights Commission to send a fact finding team and blocking efforts to get these
issues raised in the UN General Assembly and waiting for reports from whomever.
The meetings of the G8, the African Union and the United Nations in the next
weeks should be used as launching pads for very serious action to be taken
against this genocidal regime including gathering evidence of crimes against
humanity within Zimbabwe since 1980. I do not use the word genocidal lightly.
Even before the unleashing of Operation Murambatsvina it was estimated that 4
million Zimbabweans were in grave danger of starvation. If our population now
stands at about 10 million the deaths of 4 million plus people will bring the
statistics down to the figure given publicly by Didymus Mutasa as desirable - 6
million.
c. Even now some form of loosening up of Zanu (PF)
structures could be started with complicit people like Chihuri perhaps through
his contacts in Interpol, or, on different levels, Ambassadors and High
Commissioners being offered leniency in return for their assistance in providing
information and resistance of all kinds to the regime. A lot of those complicit
now will want the chance to run for cover. Stop all arms sales; all sales of
spare parts; all bank loans; everything that can extend the life of the regime.
The longer the life of the regime is extended the more people will die. The
regime will not stop with what we know so far of Operation Murambatsvina. THEY
WILL NOT STOP UNTIL THEY ARE STOPPED.
d. Appoint a very strong
Ambassador to Zimbabwe and a full time Presidential envoy to liaise with all
groups in clearing the way to a conference on a new constitution which should
probably be convened in South Africa. In order to compel all involved to move
towards a constitutional conference all pressure possible should be brought to
bear on members and servants of the regime, like the denial of visas either to
or through South Africa or SADEC countries until they are compliant. Total
sanctions should be imposed and, if necessary, Dennis Brutus should be called
back from the USA to talk to South Africans like Gerald Majolo, Cricket South
Africa chief executive about sport and politics.
Support should
be made available to all civil society organisations in South Africa who are
trying to assist counterparts and others in Zimbabwe and to Cosatu and the SACP
and the councils of churches with their efforts
regarding
Zimbabwe.
e. Enunciate the fact clearly and loudly that the people of
Zimbabwe, Nepad, the Commonwealth and the African Union are more important than
Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF). Mugabe has only a little time left on earth but
the
people of Zimbabwe and their history will continue for ever. They will
want to know about silent diplomacy and how they were affected. When Mugabe
has gone and the era of silent diplomacy has come to an end what will South
Africa have to say to the people of Zimbabwe?
f. Inventory of the
destruction of Zimbabwe and a corresponding assessment of people able to come
home for the reconstruction.
g. Instead of the electric fence being
switched on along the Botswana border, start immediately providing vast help to
the affected and dying people over the Zimbabwe border. If I remember rightly
South Africa flew water to victims of the Asian Tsunami. Hundreds of thousands
of Zimbabweans just over your borders need food, water, medicine, clothing,
shelter. They are within the reach of helicopters from South Africa, Botswana
and Mozambique.
"In a tiny scene, captured by a hidden tv camera filming
the political cleansing Robert Mugabe has visited on Zimbabweans, one shot
expressed a moment of great poignancy. A man reached out and stroked the arm of
his daughter as she walked away from him and he gazed down, eyes shaded, at the
ground. It was the gesture of a second, hopeless, it seemed, because he could
do nothing more to protect or soothe her than this touch, a gesture which only
told her he was still a living being, and reassured him that she was too". -
John Lloyd, Father's Day, The Scotsman, reprinted in NETGO News June 19
2005
PLEASE PASS THIS ON
TO EVERYBODY IN THE BULAWAYO VACINITY
DAVID COLTART TO
SPEAK
THE BULAWAYO SOUTH MP WOULD
LIKE TO SPEAK TO YOU
ON A NUMBER OF IMPORTANT
CURRENT ISSUES
THERE
IS ESSENTIAL INFORMATION THAT HE WOULD LIKE YOU TO KNOW
ABOUT
IT IS IMPERATIVE
THAT EVERY ZIMBABWEAN IS AWARE OF:
WE HAVE CONTROLLED ACCESS TO
THE TRUTH AND HERE IS YOUR
CHANCE
TO BE WELL
INFORMED
IT IS CRITICAL THAT WE ALL
INTERPRET OUR CURRENT SITUATION AS IT REALLY IS !!!
WHERE : NKETA HALL NKETA
WHEN : SUNDAY 3rd JULY
2PM &
WHERE: MABUKAWENE, CHIPPING
WAY BURNSIDE
WHEN: MONDAY 4TH JULY 5PM (
DRESS WARMLY )
BE THERE... BRING
OTHERS AND DON'T BE LEFT IN THE DARK ANY LONGER
PLEASE PASS THIS ON
TO EVERYBODY IN THE BULAWAYO VACINITY
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Clean-up victims plead with UN
envoy
Farirai Machivenyika
issue date :2005-Jul-02
FAMILIES at
Caledonia Farm - a transit camp for victims of the clean-up
operation -
yesterday pleaded with the UN special envoy currently visiting
Zimbabwe,
Anna Kajumalo Tibaijuka, for assistance, including food, blankets
and other
basic necessities.
Tibaijuka has been in the country since Sunday assessing
the impact of the
clean-up campaign and how the world body could assist the
victims.
The camp is a temporary sanctuary for families whose illegal
structures were
demolished in the operation.
At least 4 000 people are
accommodated at the site which lacks basic
sanitary facilities and clean
drinking water, among other basic needs.
The uprooted people yesterday
complained of a lack of ablution facilities
and clean water to lead decent
lives for the time being.
"There is no water and other sanitary facilities.
We are exposed to the cold
weather currently prevailing and we fear that we
will soon catch diseases.
There is no proper security for our belongings and
some of us have lost
household goods," lamented Diamone Alexio whose illegal
dwelling was
demolished at Tongogora Park on Whitecliff Farm.
"I just
hope her visit will enable the UN to provide us with assistance
because we
are suffering here," he added.
Tibaijuka has said the UN would work with the
Zimbabwean government to
assist Murambatsvina victims.
Alexio said he had
been at Caledonia camp for the past three weeks and hoped
to get decent
accommodation since he had registered to be allocated a stand
under
Operation Garikai launched by Vice-President Joseph Msika on
Tuesday.
Political commentators, who preferred to remain unnamed, say
operation
Garikai was launched as mitigation against the effects of
operation
Murambatsvina/Restore Order.
They also contend that there was
no planning whatsoever, including alerting
their targets, before the
responsible ministry embarked on the exercise.
A 54-year-old divorcee,
Gaudencia Mhuruyengwe, who was staying at Chimoio
Housing Co-operative, said
she was struggling to get enough food, as she
could not engage in any
income-generating ventures.
She welcomed Tibaijuka's visit and hoped their
plight would be addressed
soon.
The victims were yesterday treated to tea
and bread - food the affected
alleged had become a luxury - ahead of
Tibaijuka's visit to Caledonia
transit camp.
Another resident, Washington
Samakande echoed the same sentiments, saying
conditions at Caledonia camp
were not conducive for human habitation,
especially families with young
children.
"I have two young children and they are sleeping in the open. The
tents are
inadequate and most of us are sleeping in the open. My eldest
child was
doing Grade Two in Kuwadzana and has not been going to school ever
since the
operation started. There are no clinics and other basic
requirements. I just
hope she (Tibaijuka) will take our concerns to the UN
for assistance,"
Samakande said.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
including CARE; Unicef and Christian
Care, have started donating various
goods such as blankets, buckets and
mealie-meal.
The clean-up has been
criticized in certain sectors as unplanned and
insensitive with analysts
noting the high levels of human suffering caused
by the blitz.
Sources
have alleged that authorities only launched Operation Garikai
following
local and international condemnation of the exercise. The
government has,
however, assured the nation that proper planning would be
adhered to ensure
decent and affordable accommodation for the masses.
The UN delegation went to
Mutare yesterday as part of the on-going
assessment of the impact of the
operation.
Besides touring areas sheltering Murambatsvina victims, the UN
team has also
met President Robert Mugabe, commissioners running the affairs
of Harare and
the ministerial task force on reconstruction.
Meanwhile,
the government has since set aside $3 trillion for a housing
development
scheme with over 9 000 people being allocated residential stands
at
Whitecliff Farm.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Chombo, Chihuri, Mohadi sued
Takunda
Maodza
issue date :2005-Jul-02
DISPLACED Porta Farm residents have
dragged cabinet ministers Ignatius
Chombo and Kembo Mohadi, the police
commissioner and acting Harare mayor to
the High Court for contempt of
court, just four days after the no-nonsense
Operation Murambatsvina hit the
squalid settlement on the outskirts of
Harare.
The applicants are suing
Chombo in his capacity as the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and
Urban Development, Mohadi (Home Affairs),
Augustine Chihuri (police
commissioner) and Sekesai Makwavarara, the
chairperson of the committee
running the affairs of the capital, for
deliberately ignoring court
orders.
They are cited as first, second, third and fourth respondents in an
urgent
court application, case number HC3225/05, dated June 30, 2005.
The
superior court had barred the residents' eviction until an alternative
place
offering basic public amenities had been found.
In a High Court provisional
order, case number HC3177/91, Judge Wilson
Sandura ruled: "The applicants
are entitled to inhabit their dwellings until
they are relocated to suitable
permanent homes. That the respondent is
interdicted from demolishing the
applicants' dwellings or evicting (them)."
At the time, the respondent was
the Harare Municipality.
In his founding affidavit, Porta Farm residents
chairperson Felistus
Chinyuku, noted that they have been in court several
times seeking
protection against eviction by the respondents and those
acting through
them.
Chinyuku said they obtained a provisional order
barring the City of Harare
from evicting them. The matter was still pending
and the order valid, he
added.
Reads Chinyuku's affidavit in part: "In
case number HC10671/04, we obtained
an order barring the first respondent
(Chombo) from evicting us. The order
is still operative. In case number
HC11041/04, the city of Harare applied to
have us evicted from Porta Farm.
That application was dismissed with costs.
"In an attempt to fulfil court
orders 'A' and 'B' (Judges Wilson Sandura and
Susan Mavangira's provisional
orders), the first respondent advised the
court in an answering affidavit
filed in case number HC10671/04 that they
had complied with the court orders
and that we should move to our new
places. No one was able to show us any
piece of land referred to in the
answering affidavit in
question."
Chinyuku explained that while residents awaited the first and
fourth
respondents to honour the court orders, Operation Murambatsvina was
launched.
Chinyuku said the blitzkrieg struck Porta on June 27, 2005 when
the police
press and liaison section advised them to vacate the farm by 4pm
the next
day.
Despite applicants being armed with High Court orders
barring their
evictions, three bulldozers pounced on Porta Farm, exposing
the abandoned
poor families to the cold winter.
"At about 11:30hrs on the
28 of June 2005, the persons who had come drove
bulldozers towards our
dwellings. We confronted them with annexures A, B and
D (the court orders
stopping the eviction). All of them refused to accept
the annexures,"
Chinyuku added.
"They said they were illiterate, that they were not in a
classroom to be
given papers to read and in any event they were not going to
obey any court
orders as they were acting on orders from above. I submit
that the
respondents and those that were acting through them and on their
behalf were
clearly in contempt of court," he added.
Applicants are
seeking an order declaring respondents to be in contempt of
court and pray
that "each respondent is sentenced to 30 days imprisonment
with labour. Each
respondent is sentenced to a further 30 days with labour
wholly suspended on
conditions they purge their contempt".
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Bulawayo losing millions in water
charges
From PamenusTuso
issue date :2005-Jul-02
BULAWAYO is
losing millions of dollars in water charges monthly through
illegal
reconnections amid claims that some municipal employees are behind
the
scam.
According to latest council minutes, the Bulawayo City Council (BCC)
warned
that if left unchecked, the rampant practice was likely to worsen the
city's
financial woes.
"Some residents especially those in the
high-density suburbs have resorted
to reconnect water supplies on their own
as soon as council officials leave
the premises after disconnecting water
supplies," reads the minutes in part.
"In some cases housing assistants are
allegedly accepting bribes to
reconnect the water supplies after working
hours. Some council police
officers, whose duty amongst others, is to
enforce council by-laws, are also
said to be accepting kick-backs to
reconnect cut water supplies."
The reports are certainly no good news for
law-abiding residents who have
reportedly threatened to stop paying their
water charges next month until
the council takes appropriate action.
Town
Clerk Moffat Ndlovu said it was criminal to reconnect cut water
supplies.
"Any person or resident seen illegally reconnecting water
supplies will be
arrested. Apart from that, the surcharges will also be
doubled," said
Ndlovu.
He also warned residents to stop tampering with
water reading meters once
for all.
Daily Mirror, Zimbabwe
Zim, China relationship should be internationally
recognised - President
The Daily Mirror Reporter
issue date
:2005-Jul-02
RELATIONS between China and Zimbabwe should now be developed
further so that
the relationship is internationally recognised, President
Robert Mugabe has
said.
The President said this on Thursday when a
visiting delegation from the
Chinese Ministry of Justice paid a courtesy
call on him at Zimbabwe House.
"Relations between the two countries date back
to the days of our liberation
struggle and now that they are very firm, it
is necessary that we develop
them much more so that we can stand together
not only bilaterally, but also
internationally," President Mugabe
said.
Duan Zhengkun, head of delegation and China's Deputy Minister of
Justice,
said the visit was an opportunity to exchange views on common
interests.
"The two countries have had exchanges and cooperation in many
areas,
including economic and trade issues, and that can be supported by
cooperation in legal areas," Zhengkun said.
"We are delighted to be
received by the President. We hope for further
cooperation."
The
delegation arrived in the country on Wednesday and met Zimbabwe's Chief
Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, who briefed them on the local judiciary
system.
He said although political relations between Zimbabwe and China were
very
strong, relations between the two judiciary systems were weak.
The
delegation also paid a courtesy call on Attorney General, Sobusa
Gula-Ndebele.
Topics of discussion included cooperation in the area of
intellectual
property rights.
Gula Ndebele said China had an advanced
intellectual property and strong
anti-corruption laws that could be helpful
to Zimbabwe.
The delegation, which leaves the country on Sunday after
visiting one of the
country's prime resort areas, the Victoria Falls, also
met Justice, Legal
and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Patrick Chinamasa on
Thursday.
Channel4 News
Bulldozing on
Published: 1 Jul 2005
By:
Lindsey Hilsum
Mugabes bulldozers kill at least three - including a child
- amid a new
assault on the dwellings of fifty thousand
Zimbabweans.
A community demolished - a life destroyed. When the Zimbabwe
authorities
sent the bulldozers into Porta Farm south of Harare yesterday,
they
devastated more than buildings.
"The caterpillars were
demolishing the house and my son ran onto the road. A
truck ran him over,
and he died on the spot. His brains were splattered on
the ground. We had to
pick up his brains. Because I am his father, I had to
get sand to cover the
blood." - Trynos Mayere, father.
Fanandi was five years old. The family
say now they've been made homeless
and destitute, they don't even know where
to bury him or hold a funeral.
"I blame the government, because if they
were not demolishing our houses
then my son would not have died." - Eunice
Manyere, mother
The destruction was relentless and spared nothing and
no-one who happened to
be in the way. One family sit with the body of their
mother in their ruins -
she was too sick to run when the bulldozers came.
Her daughter watched,
helpless.
"She was lying in the room. Then they
came yesterday. They hit the wall, and
the wall fell on her head. She was
sick. She can't run away."
A pregnant woman was allegedly beaten by
police. An eyewitness said, "A
woman died. She was getting into a car when
they started beating her. She
was pregnant. She fell over and died. Are they
saying poor people must die?
They might as well just shoot us
all."
Porta Farm had been a thriving community since 1992. Ironically,
President
Mugabe's government brought them here so they wouldn't clutter up
the
capital during the Queen's visit for the Commonwealth
Conference.
After dark, the UN Secretary General's envoy Anna Tibaijuka
arrived, fresh
from a meeting with government ministers. She's said to be
deeply concerned
that the demolitions are continuing even during her
visit.
"Why is it that these people are always torturing us? Fifteen
years of
facing horror. This is very unbearable." -
They handed her a
baby whose mother had fled. Clearly upset she gave the
baby back and asked
that she be fed. The woman holding the baby gave the
telling
reply:
"I am not the mother and there's nothing to give her."
She
was overwhelmed. Ms Tibaijuka was on Tony Blair's Africa Commission. In
Zimbabwe, she's witnessing suffering caused not by terms of trade, debt or
lack of aid but by a government wreaking destruction on its own people.
Mail and Guardian
Zim accepts aid
Irin News
Service
01 July 2005 09:59
The
Zimbabwean government has agreed to allow aid groups to
offer humanitarian
assistance to people who have been displaced in its
controversial urban
clean-up drive.
Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo
announced that the
government would allow donors to provide assistance,
mainly in the capital,
Harare, and Zimbabwe's second city,
Bulawayo.
However, Chombo stressed that the NGOs would have
to adhere to
certain regulations. "Anyone with genuine intent and concern is
allowed to
assist, but there are rules to be followed. Already we are
working together
with organisations, such as the Red Cross, who have done a
good job in
converting Caledonia Farm into a transit
camp."
Two farms - Caledonia on the outskirts of Harare and
Hellensvale
near Bulawayo -- have been converted into holding camps for
those whose
homes have been destroyed.
NGOs confirmed
reaching an agreement with the government to
provide food, blankets,
medicines and sanitation facilities in the camps.
James
Elder, of the United Nations children's fund, Unicef, said
the agency was
particularly concerned about the plight of children who have
been unable to
attend school. "There is a lot of work we are doing
throughout the country
that includes disbursing blankets, putting up
sanitary facilities,
[providing] sleeping tents and [addressing the needs]
of
children."
Unicef has appealed for more than $2,7-million to
expand health
care, deliver non-food items, provide HIV/Aids prevention and
care, and
place social workers in key areas as it steps up support to
evicted
children.
"Many children are now without shelter
during winter, others
have been separated from their parents and caregivers,
schooling has been
disrupted, access to water is difficult, and respiratory
infections and
diarrhoeal diseases are a real threat," said Dr Festo
Kavishe, Unicef's
representative in Zimbabwe.
According
to the police, families would only be accommodated in
the holding camps for
a month while they either searched for proper
accommodation in the townships
or returned to their rural homes.