South African church leaders were ”shocked” on Monday by conditions at a holding camp housing people displaced by Zimbabwe’s controversial government clean up operation, said Matthew Esau, the spokesperson for the archbishop of Cape Town Njongonkulo Ndungane who is leading a delegation of church officials to Zimbabwe.
”Pretty much all members of the delegation have been shocked to see the situation of so many children, women and young people,” said Esau, who added that the structures at camp Caledonia Transit Centre on the outskirts of the capital Harare were ”very rudimentary”.
The 11-member delegation is investigating the effects of Zimbabwe’s Operation Restore Order, a controversial police blitz on the urban poor that human rights groups say has left 300 000 Zimbabweans homeless.
The operation has seen gangs of armed police, backed by bulldozers, demolishing houses, cottages, backyard shacks and squatter camps since mid-May.
A United Nations envoy left Zimbabwe at the weekend following a two-week investigation into the operation, while an envoy from the African Union was last week turned away by the government who accused him of arriving unannounced.
Independent reports from Caledonia Transit Centre, which now has at least 5 000 people living in it, say some people are sleeping out in the open while others are in tents. There is little running water and not enough toilets for everyone.
Esau said most of the people the delegation spoke to on Monday said they did not know why they were there.
The state-run Herald newspaper reported that at least 185 street children had also been taken to Caledonia.
The bishops — who include leaders from Methodist, Dutch Reformed and Roman Catholic churches — hope to meet President Robert Mubabe later on Monday. They are also scheduled to meet opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims the police campaign is aimed at driving the party’s supporters from towns and cities into the countryside where Mugabe’s ruling party is dominant.
The government dismisses the claim, saying the police operation was necessary to curb crime and ease pressure on overburdened municipalities.
Meanwhile, residents of Harare’s wealthier suburbs were on Monday bracing for police raids after state media announced the clean up operation is being extended into low density areas of the capital.
Tapiwa Mashakada, the MDC lawmaker for Harare’s Hatfield suburb where police were expected on Monday, said he had not received reports of police demolitions by midday. – Sapa-DPA