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Zim clean-up shocks residents
21/06/2005 19:45 - (SA)
Johannesburg - Twenty-five years after the struggle against white minority rule, Zimbabweans are experiencing fresh trauma at the hands of the present government, Paul Nyathi, spokesperson for the country's Movement for Democratic Change, said on Monday.
Nyathi was addressing a meeting of the Zimbabwe Solidarity Forum in Johannesburg organised by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation.
"Wherever we go, people ask what is wrong with the people of Zimbabwe? Why do they take such tyranny? Why are they so docile?" said Nyathi.
"Then I have to go back to our history where Zimbabwean people invested 100 years in the struggle. Twenty-five (years) later, there's trauma in the minds of the people of Zimbabwe. They still can't understand how a government they voted into power could behave in such a matter."
Nyathi was referring to the Zimbabwean government's demolition of informal settlements.
These "clean-up" operations were launched last month in both rural and urban areas.
Families left homeless
A 12-minute documentary shown at the meeting depicted homes in Bulawayo, Hatcliff Extension and other settlements being demolished and families being left to seek shelter under trees and in dense bushes.
"Initially police did destroy people's houses but now they tell them to do it for themselves," said Bella Matambanadzo, a Zimbabwean political activist.
She said the police, some of them suspected to be youths from militia groups, had instilled so much fear that residents often opted to destroy their homes themselves.
The video compiled by the Solidarity Peace Trust also featured a young mother guarding her meagre belongings in the bushes nursing her three-week old infant.
Small business such as cell phone and tuck shops have been destroyed, depriving residents of access to food and other services.
Removals traumatising people
"It's bad. It (the removals) has affected my mind, everything. I'm like a non-starter now," commented one man in the footage taken in Bulawayo.
An estimated one million people have been left homeless since the launch of the clean-up operations, which include Operation Marumbatsivila which literally means "to refuse the things that are dirty", Matambanadzo said.
She said women have born the brunt of the campaign.
The MDC was also heavily criticised by delegates for their absence during confrontations between residents and the police, and for their lack of a comprehensive strategy in dealing with the Zimbabwean crisis.
Nyathi responded to the accusations — saying the MDC was working with the broader opposition alliance. However, going into details posed security risks.
He urged South Africans to put pressure on their government to take a firmer stance on Zimbabwe, saying it was the region's common humanity that was being attacked.
- SAPA
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