Murambatsvina is a Shona word meaning “clean-up”. This story describes how a supposed “clean-up” operation is used to bring to heel the urban dwellers consistently opposed to the ruling political party. Fr Michael Bennett, a Kiltegan missionary, has worked for fifteen years as a justice and peace activist in Mutare, Zimbabwe. 2008 is the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
Yesterday, Monday morning, I rose early and went to see again the situation in the township very near where I live. The population of Sakubva is estimated to be between 110,000 and 120,000 people. Well over half of Sakubva’s residents lived in shacks – usually a mother and three or four children. All the shacks have been demolished in the past two weeks, which means that 70,000 to 80,000 people lost their homes in this township.
Where did they go? The previous week when I came here, most of the people were still sleeping in the open. This time a lot of them had gone. Some to rural homes – although, I think, they are a minority. Many have no proper rural homes; others have but do not wish to go there as there is little food and income. Most rural folks don’t want them either; they would be just another burden.
I think quite a large number have sourced other accommodation – one room somewhere in Sakubva or the other townships. Rents have doubled in the past week; people spend the little they have just to get a little money to pay the rent for the first month. (After that, how will they pay rent?) I know what a small room with a mother and four children looks and smells like. It is not a pretty place! Rough within and often just one outside toilet and shower shared by a number of families.
It was 6.00 a.m.- still dark but there was a chink of light and the dawn soon followed; mid-winter and quite cold, perhaps 5 or 6 degrees celsius. Certainly that is cold for here, south of the Equator. I just wandered around; I knew that at this early hour I would get an overview of those who were genuinely sleeping in the open. I covered a small area in the next hour and met about forty families lying on bits of beds, boards and blankets, perhaps 150 human beings, mostly covered head to toe to avoid the cold, just trying to keep them warm. Maybe they were twins.
I approached two elderly men and a woman in another open hovel; I soon discovered they were all blind. We chatted; and they were happy to have a visitor. I pick up two people to bring to the doctor; one, a young girl, had stood on a nail and was limping badly. Nails are sticking up all over from the demolished shacks (I’m sure a number of small children playing in the rubble must have been pierced in recent days). Another was a middle age emaciated woman, coughing heavily.
I do not describe the scene very well as I no longer see it as I saw it the first day I came here. I have to some extent got used to it. I remember the first day saying that it reminded me of some of those Second World War films – where an area had been blitzed, totally devastated.
The destruction continues. Two days ago the flea market – hundreds of informal traders selling second hand clothes, shoes, watches – God knows what – was demolished. Today the green market got the hammer; the green market is home to scores of informal traders, carpenters, welders, mechanics and coffin-makers.
The new coffins were lined up on the side of the road. The little workshops in which they were made had been demolished. (Coffin making is big business; because of AIDS the average life expectancy in Zimbabwe is – according to a WHO study – 37 years for men and 34 years for women).
If I ask myself ‘what is going on?” I think we can make a good shot at the answers. In the last few years 320,000 registered farm working families were removed from the land along with about 3800 (about 600 remain) white farmers. We knew all about it, saw some of it in the concrete, but it was somewhat less visible to us. This present operation is highly visible. But the steamrolling process is the same. Ostensibly it is to clean up the urban areas, remove criminal elements and restore the cities to their pristine beauty. In reality it is about control.
The farms have changed hands and are now largely in the hands of the ruling party and their supporters. The rural areas are controlled by the chiefs and elders who support the ruling party. Now it is time for the urban people – who have consistently not voted for the ruling party – to be brought under control. A trimmed-down urban population can be better managed; those who go from urban to rural areas will enter into the net of the ruling regime. The fact that farm output is down 50% to 60% which along with poor rainfall means that there are grave food shortages once again this year – does not seem to matter much. Or that the social upheaval in the cities and towns is largely eliminating the informal sector and the services they provide – does not seem to matter.
The fact that here in Mutare, thousands of people have lost, not just their homes, but their way of life, and that there will be more destitution, many families without income for school fees, medicine, etc, is not a big issue. Or that after progress being made over the years in programmes supporting AIDS orphans, street children, etc. there is inevitable regression: that is not a consideration. The end desired – power and control – is all important; the means used is not the issue.
Why don’t the people stand up and resist? The police are at the forefront of implementing this demolition policy; the army is not far away. People do not wish to be beaten and jailed for resisting; they do not want bloodshed. Those in authority wash their hands of the events: last week a few church leaders met a high government official. He just said that he had received orders from above and had no option. After all he had a wife and a family to look after and he did not want to lose his job by objecting to what was going on!
So how are we responding? Band-aid, really – putting plaster on the wounds but not really getting at the root causes. We have chipped away at the latter over the years, getting people to think for themselves, ask the right questions about what is going on. We will continue to do this but just now the band aid is necessary. WFP have been very helpful. About 800 families received blankets and food in the last ten days. The distribution process has slowed down as it was getting out of control. Yesterday morning there were nearly 1,000 people (some of them were thieves) within the area of the Justice and Peace office and the Catholic Cathedral, here in central Mutare. It became impossible to help the genuine people.
We asked them to leave. If we had not, the police would come and forced them to leave. The police have been around; they do not like the crowds but they have not stopped our efforts to help the needy. We need to re-strategise and do things in a quieter way. The work will be ongoing – helping people to survive the cold of night, have some food and get on their feet again. There is a small team of committed people – mainly Catholics and Anglicans. They have worked hard and will continue to do so.
I ask myself “why do I write all this?” I have a mixture of thoughts and feelings: I do not think many people know what is going on here. I think they should know. The Zimbabwean Catholic Bishops wrote a statement last week in which they said: “We warn the perpetrators of this crime that history will hold each of you accountable for your actions”. Strong stuff – I think these words need to be heard.
I examine my own feelings and say I have become too used to all this. Many people in Mutare ask: ‘what can we do? Better to say nothing’. If their brothers and sisters are out in the cold in Sakubva and elsewhere, well, so what? They’ll get over it. There is indifference in a society where almost everyone is watching their own back and where they queue for many things (I have not seen diesel for six weeks in Mutare), and people fight over a bag of sugar that is for sale. They also fight over the blankets they receive; I’m told that some of them ended up for sale in the open market. Get what you can and make the quick penny.
I do not think I should ever get used to what has happened. I know I should not. It is evil. Human dignity has been gravely violated. Maybe I write partly to remind myself of this. It is not a happy society. And yet we must live with hope. Not take on the perpetrators of these events by responding with the tactics they use: arrogance, intimidation, violence. Not meet evil with evil, but meet evil with good and hatred with love.
Today’s gospel says that ‘we must love our enemies, do good to those who hate us and pray for those who persecute us.’
Creative love is very demanding and challenging in view of the destruction, both material and psychological, that has been wreaked. But we must take on the challenge with God’s grace, persevering in working together for a better future. Surely this is the Christian task.
Article Courtesy of the Irish Missionary Union
