New threat of urban demolition

Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights said it was ready to help people who risked losing their homes after the City of Harare warned that it would tear down illegal structures erected since last year's evictions and demolitions. On 26 March the council of the capital city announced that it was issuing 30 days' notice of its intention to repossess undeveloped stands. The warning came on the eve of the first anniversary of Operation Murambatsvina, in which the government demolished what it termed 'illegal' homes and businesses, depriving more than 700,000 people of shelter and livelihood. Tafadzwa Mugabe, a member of Lawyers for Human Rights, which provides free legal advice, said it was important for residents to comply with regulations, ensure that construction met council standards and title deeds were in order. "We are ready to assist people to meet the legal demands of local authorities and the state to avert what happened last year," he said. "Last time, residents were told to regularise their houses, but before they could do that they were razed to the ground, and that is what should be avoided." Officials from residents' associations in the Harare suburbs of Mbare, Glen View and Dzivarasekwa said council officials had already started evicting residents from their uncompleted houses. Police have also intensified efforts to remove illegal street traders. IRIN witnessed several fruit and vegetable vendors, most of them women with babies on their backs, being arrested by police and their goods confiscated. Last year the government insisted that everybody evicted from informal settlements should return to their rural homes. Those without rural roots - typically people of non-Zimbabwean origin - were put into in holding camps. One such facility is Hopley Transit Camp, just outside Harare, where around 6,500 victims of Operation Murambatsvina are housed in temporary shelters, some no more than plastic sheeting. On Tuesday the government banned the international NGO, Christian Care, from making general food distributions, reportedly on the grounds that the settlement was seen as a stronghold of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. "We have been told to do what is termed 'targeted' feeding," an NGO employee said. "This means we can only feed the elderly, the sick and child-headed families - we have been told to exclude those able to fend for themselves. We have had no option but to go ahead with the demands of the government, through its officers from the ministry of social welfare."