Another person dies … another unreported statistic
While waiting for someone at Kensington shopping centre in Harare on 2 August at around midday, I noticed a police truck reversing into an overgrown piece of ground running parallel to Cork Road. As I moved closer to observe, the policemen told curious onlookers not to come near. They then proceeded to tug and pull a body out of a ditch, put it into a body box and drove away.
When they had left the scene, I asked some of the people nearby what was going on. “Some people live in that ditch, they are homeless and one must have died last night,” they said.
The next morning I returned to the ditch and spoke to a man I’ll call “J”, who explained that the dead man was his friend and he was about 45 years old. “J” said that they used to live at Mufakose, but after their shacks had been destroyed during Operation Murambatsvina, they had been unable to afford to rent and had resorted to living in the ditch.
He told me they had survived by scavenging leftover food from dustbins and by collecting plastic bottles which brought in small amounts of money. “J” explained that Richard had died at around 4 o’clock the previous morning, having spoken of severe stomach pains.
“J” said he was sad about his friend and would change his life if he could, “but I can’t do it by myself.”
Tragically the man who passed away becomes just another unreported, unknown statistic of the increasingly horrific situation in Zimbabwe under the Mugabe regime.
