Zimbabwe's operation "drive out rubbish"

Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe has ordered the destruction of the shanty town in Harare and surroundings as well as the arrest of all illegal street vendors and destruction of their kiosks. An estimated half of the 2 million Harare residents live in these illegal housings and illegal trading is one of the view survival strategies the poor have in a country with 70% unemployment. The reasons given for this crackdown are many and varied, use of vendors as scapegoats for economic woes, punishment for the poor voting for the opposition in a contested election, inciting riots so that Mugabe can declare a state emergency and grab even more power and appeasement of Chinese businesses who have complained vendors were undercutting their prices. To make matters worse, in addition to the continuing destruction of the shanty towns, Mugabe’s government has now imposed big price hikes on common food items leading to another claim that the demolitions purpose was to subdue the population before the hikes and is subsidizing his expensive anniversary party.

Paramilitary police have burned down shack dwellings in Harare as part of a heavy-handed campaign to clean up Zimbabwe’s capital.

The crackdown on shanty housing in big towns – named Operation Marambatsvina, or “drive out rubbish” – came just days after the arrest of thousands of street traders accused of fuelling a black-market economy.

Residents in several suburbs fought police and destroyed vehicles and property after the arrests and destruction of roadside stalls last week.

The Government ordered all illegal dwellings in Harare to be destroyed to stop it becoming a “filthy shack township”, according to Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri. Half the city’s 2 million-plus residents are thought to live in shanty housing.

Early in the week it was announced that shack dwellers would have until the end of July to find places to live, but by Friday state television showed bulldozers destroying shacks as riot police looked on.

Mr Chihuri said resistance would not be tolerated. “The ZRP (police) has adequate resources to ensure peace and tranquillity prevail,” he told the state-run Herald newspaper.

Critics of the Government say the action is to punish urban voters for a their opposition in March’s parliamentary elections.

President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party was beaten in most big towns, but…

Posted by TylerDurden