The oldest, most populous township in Zimbabwe’s capital was filled with debris on Monday as police pressed on with a highly unpopular drive to clean up Harare, while resident complained they were hit by a ”tsunami”.
The teeming streets of Mbare were littered with goods and furniture as smoke from burning rubble filled the air and shell-shocked residents wandered around trying to resume their lives.
”A tsunami has hit us, a real tsunami,” said a hawker, sitting on top of his pile of cane baskets and chairs, pondering his next move.
”I don’t even have anywhere to sleep as we speak. My furniture is by the roadside. I took it out for fear the police will come and torch my house,” Judah Katurura said, referring to a makeshift room he rents a kilometre from the market.
For a week and a half Zimbabwean police have gone on the rampage in and around Harare, demolishing and flattening tens of thousands of illegally built houses and market stalls and torching some of them.
The move sparked mini riots in two working class Harare townships last week but were quelled by heavily armed security forces.
Vegetable growers were also badly hit by Monday’s police action in Mbare.
”I am returning to Guruve [about 200km north of Harare] with my vegetables and they are just going to rot.
All my customers are here,” said a vendor, driving away with a half-full truck of fruit and vegetables.
Most vendors at the capital’s Siyaso (loosely translated as ‘leave it as is’) and Mupedzanhamo (end poverty) markets are packing their wares, which include second-hand clothes, car parts and coffins.
”Yes we appreciate the need to clean up, but government allowed us to operate like this for too long. It had become the way of life for many of us,” said Mandy Chitendza.
The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, which is urging Zimbabweans to ”mobilise” against President Robert Mugabe’s government over the controversial clean-up campaign, says more than half of Zimbabwe’s economy depends on the informal sector. The MDC says there are about three million informal traders.
Many people have started demolishing backyard shacks and makeshift houses in a bid to salvage some building materials before the bulldozers move in.
Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka however said most people were complying with their orders although about 1 000 people had been arrested in the capital over the weekend.
”But the operation is going on well. There are no hurdles at all and it’s quite calm,” said Mandipaka of the operation that has raised the ire of rights bodies and the opposition.
Meanwhile, state radio reported that police arrested an American found filming the crackdown on illegal structures and businesses.
Howard Smith Gilman was reportedly arrested for flouting the media law by operating as journalist without accreditation.
He is also to face charges under immigration laws as he has overstayed his visa.
Police said they have found pornographic material at his house where he allegedly stayed with 13 young girls aged between 11 and 15 years. ‒ Sapa-AFP