Songs, plays and heart-rending testimonies on Thursday marked the first anniversary of Zimbabwe’s demolitions blitz, which left hundreds of thousands homeless and destitute.
Reti Chakadenga, a former house owner now living among the destitutes on the banks of a river on the outskirts of Harare, sniffed and battled to hold back tears as she narrated her daily struggle after her ”unplanned” three-roomed brick home was razed last year.
”I now live with my four children and two grandchildren in a plastic and metal shack on the banks of Mukuvisi River, yet I had a proper house,” she told scores who gathered in a hall in Highfield township to mark the controversial Operation Murambatsvina, or ”Drive Out Filth”.
”It pains me when I remember that I used to live in a proper house,” the 58-year-old mother of four said.
A community theatre group and groups of aspiring rap musicians and poets performed at the first of a series of events to be held until July 18 to mark the crackdown.
According to the United Nations, it left at least 700 000 homeless and destitute and affected 1,2-million people in various ways.
”People have shown they have not forgotten that unfortunate chapter in our history,” said Precious Shumba, spokesperson for Combined Harare Residents and Ratepayers’ Association, one of the organisations organising the events.
The operation also deprived at least a million people of their means of livelihood and has since become known as the ”tsunami”.
Despite a much-vaunted follow-up operation called ”Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle” or ”Live Well”, meant to provide a better life to those whose homes or shops were destroyed, tens of thousands are still living in makeshift homes at various locations across the country.
President Robert Mugabe said last month that ”of the 7 478 planned units for phase one of Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, 3 325 were completed last year and have been allocated to deserving beneficiaries.” — AFP
