Church leaders condemn Zimbabwe demolition
South African church leaders said today that Zimbabwe’s so-called urban renewal drive that has destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and livelihoods was fuelling a humanitarian crisis.
Members of the South African Council of Churches called the campaign inhumane after spending two days this week in Zimbabwe touring a demolished township and visiting some of the displaced at a transit camp outside Harare.
“The displaced people are living under inhumane conditions,” church council president Russel Botman told a meeting of the group’s central committee. “Their humanity has been denied, and their remaining dignity trampled on.”
Police in Zimbabwe have torched and bulldozed shantytowns, informal markets and other structures deemed illegal in a campaign dubbed Operation Murambatsvina - or Drive Out Trash. Many have been forced at gunpoint to tear down their own homes.
The destruction, which comes at a time of economic crisis in Zimbabwe, is fuelling serious food shortages and could become a “catalyst for conflict,” Mr Botman warned.
Residents at the Caledonia transit camp told the delegation they were given 30 minutes to pack before they were loaded on to trucks and “dumped” at the disused farm, about 18 miles south-east of Harare.
Some 4,890 people were sheltering against the winter cold in tents made of plastic sheets and pieces of wood, Mr Botman said. They were told they would be staying there only five days, but a month later they were still there.
The Zimbabwe government has defended the campaign as necessary to clean out overcrowded and crime-infested slums. Opposition leaders say it is aimed at breaking up their strongholds among the urban poor and diverting attention from the economic crisis.
