An envoy for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew to Zimbabwe on Sunday to investigate a so-called urban renewal campaign that has destroyed the homes and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans.
Hours before the arrival of Anna Tibaijuka, head of UN Habitat, a state-run newspaper reported that the government was winding up the campaign dubbed Operation Murambatsvina, or Drive Out Trash.
The Sunday Mail report was dismissed by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change. Party spokesperson Paul Themba Nyathi said the destruction of shanty towns continued unabated over the weekend in the southern border town of Beitbridge.
Police have torched and bulldozed tens of thousands of shacks, street stalls and even the vegetable gardens planted by the urban poor at a time of acute food shortages, since launching the programme on May 19.
Estimates of the number affected range between 300 000 and 1,5-million.
President Robert Mugabe says the campaign is necessary to fight crime and maintain health standards in Zimbabwe’s cities. But the opposition, which has its strongholds among the urban poor, says the blitz is intended to punish its supporters who voted against the government in recent parliamentary elections.
Mugabe told his party he had agreed to meet with Annan’s envoy ”so as to enable the secretary-general to understand and appreciate what we are trying to do”.
Tibaijuka, who heads a seven-member delegation, was expected to meet Mugabe early in the week, UN spokesperson Katherine Anderson said. She will also tour towns and cities where the operation is taking place to assess its impact. Her visit is expected to last several days, Anderson said.
Also on the agenda are meetings with legislators, including the opposition, church leaders and others who have been helping those affected.
Mugabe’s government has sought to curb the independent media, and only state accredited journalists were allowed to meet with Tibaijuka upon her arrival Sunday afternoon.
The government’s campaign — in which 42 000 people have been arrested, fined or had their goods confiscated — has provoked an international outcry.
The independent Sunday Standard newspaper reported at least six people have died. They include two children crushed under collapsing walls, two more children and a woman who died of pneumonia after being left exposed to the winter cold, and a man who committed suicide.
About 300 000 children have been forced to quit school after they were driven from their homes, the paper said.
The Sunday Mail, considered a government mouthpiece, reported that ”the cleanup exercise” is winding up and being replaced by a new campaign called Operation Garikai, or Let Us Be Settled and Live at Peace.
Quoting unidentified government sources, the newspaper said the new programme ”aims to provide residential and business accommodation to deserving people”.
”The new operation will be implemented with immediate effect and will see the construction of new houses … enterprise facilities and attendant infrastructure in cities, towns, townships, growth points and resettlement areas by Aug. 30, 2005,” the Sunday Mail reported.
Early Sunday, state radio called for qualified builders, carpenters and plumbers to report to government offices for a massive reconstruction programme.
On Friday, Mugabe said three-trillion Zimbabwe dollars (US$325-million) would be spent to build 1,2-million houses or building plots by 2008.
But economists said they doubted cash-strapped Zimbabwe ‒ where inflation is running near 150% and unemployment hovers around 80% — could afford the rebuilding programme. – Sapa-AP