A Fractured Nation
The Solidarity Peace Trust have released a new report and a film titled ‘Poverty on Top of Poverty’ today. The report, titled ‘A Fractured Nation: Operation Murambatsvina – five years on‘ follows up previous Operation Murambatsvina research conducted by SPT in 2005 and 2006, and builds on their narratives of the lives of particular families and informal settlements from 2005 to 2010. SPT write: “The story is a grim one, with many of those we remembered now prematurely dead, and others living in unspeakable poverty”. The full report can be downloaded from the SPT website here.
In Hopley Farm, Harare, 8,500 adults live in makeshift housing: out of 2,000 school age children, 75% are out of formal school. July 2010
The case studies drive home the terrible plight of those caught up in Murambatsvina – still struggling to survive five years on in terrible circumstances. The stories are heartbreaking, as the interviewers retrace steps with the forgotten Murambatsvina victims:
Rural district, Matabeleland North
One extended family of 4 adults (brothers and their wives) and 6 children
Originally from Ngozi Mine informal settlement
Interviews: May 2010This family was pictured in Crime of Poverty (2005) living on an open veranda in a rural district. They had a three-month-old baby and had lived in seven different places in three months as a result of the demolitions. They were originally from Ngozi Mine. They had been forcibly relocated to the rural area by the police, being among those abducted from the churches in July 2005.
Out of the first family unit of five, the mother and baby girl were dead by August 2006. The baby had lived in ten places in her eleven months of life. Her father was still alive in August 2006, and her eight-year-old brother was living with a grandmother.
Update 2010
In November 2006, the father from this family unit had also died, leaving the 8 year-old boy an orphan. He was sent back to live with his uncle and family, who were back living in Killarney by then.Out of the second family unit of five, in 2006, they were shuttling between Killarney and their rural homestead allocated to them post OM in Tobotobo, and one of the children had severely burnt her feet walking in a fire. The family is mired in poverty, and cannot afford to have the child seen to be doctors. She appears to need her toes amputated as she cannot put on shoes and has to walk over ten kilometers to school bare footed.
And this case of a woman who was forced to leave the country as a result of Murambatsvina:
FM – aged 35
De Doorns
30 May 20101. Budiriro: 2005 I was living in Budiriro (suburb of Harare) in 2005 on my stand that I had bought. My dwelling was completely destroyed by OM. At that time, I was manager of Nandos. I did a three-year training in Hotel Catering in the 1990s.
2. Harare apartment: 2005-6 After OM, the company paid to accommodate me in Harare, but there was nowhere for my family to live, so I had to take my wife and children to my rural home in Bindura.
3. Botswana: end 2007 Life became very tough. By the end of 2007, I was working for nothing – my money had no value. I had to leave my job because there was no point working for nothing, and I thought I could earn more in Botswana. But in Botswana it was very tough – the police are very hard on Zimbabweans. I found that work was not really possible in Botswana as well, so I had to head on.
4. Cape Town: early 2008 So I came to the Cape. At first I was living in Cape Town, outside the Home Affairs office. I was just sleeping on the pavement there outside Home Affairs, it was desperate. Then a friend and I decided to come out to the farms to look for work. I have been working here on and off, ever since. It is not ideal. We get between R300- R350 per week, depending, in the high season, but at this time of year I am lucky to get one or two days of work a week.
5. De Doorns suburb: 2008 I was living in De Doorns when they threw out the Zimbabweans. I lost a lot of property – that’s why they chased us, they knew they could get something for nothing.
6. De Doorns Camp: Nov 2009 I have been living in the tented camp since November when we lost everything. It is now getting very cold, it is not a good place to be.
7. Where next? I have no idea what I will do next, if the camp closes. That is another problem. I have nowhere else to go and no idea what I might do.
Rural district, Matabeleland North
One extended family of 4 adults (brothers and their wives) and 6 children
Originally from Ngozi Mine informal settlement
Interviews: May 2010
This family was pictured in Crime of Poverty (2005) living on an open veranda in a rural district. They had a three-month-old baby and had lived in seven different places in three months as a result of the demolitions. They were originally from Ngozi Mine. They had been forcibly relocated to the rural area by the police, being among those abducted from the churches in July 2005.
Out of the first family unit of five, the mother and baby girl were dead by August 2006. The baby had lived in ten places in her eleven months of life. Her father was still alive in August 2006, and her eight-year-old brother was living with a grandmother.
Update 2010
In November 2006, the father from this family unit had also died, leaving the 8 year-old boy an orphan. He was sent back to live with his uncle and family, who were back living in Killarney by then.
Out of the second family unit of five, in 2006, they were shuttling between Killarney and their rural homestead allocated to them post OM in Tobotobo, and one of the children had severely burnt her feet walking in a fire. The family is mired in poverty, and cannot afford to have the child seen to be doctors. She appears to need her toes amputated as she cannot put on shoes and has to walk over ten kilometers to school bare footed
July 31st, 2010 00:38
This is just a sad state of affairs especially when you see how the ‘other half’ or should I say those at the other end of the spectrum live. There is more than enough to go around for everyone to live comfortably but that thing called greed takes over.
July 31st, 2010 15:08
It is too terrible that human beings and citizens of a country have been brutalised in every way and made homeless by the government.