Operation Murambatsvina (Move the Rubbish), also officially known as Operation Restore Order, was a large-scale Zimbabwean government campaign to forcibly clear slum areas across the country. The campaign started in 2005 and, according to United Nations estimates, affected at least 700,000 people directly through loss of their homes or livelihood and thus could have indirectly affected around 1.4 million people.[ww2.unhabitat.org/documents/ZimbabweReport.pdf "UN report on Zim. government"], Report, 17 June 2005. Robert Mugabe and other government officials characterised the operation as a crackdown against illegal housing and commercial activities, and as an effort to reduce the risk of the spread of infectious disease in these areas.
However, the campaign was met with harsh condemnation from Zimbabwean opposition parties, church groups, non-governmental organisations, and the wider international community. The United Nations described the campaign as an effort to drive out and make homeless large sections of the urban and rural poor, who make up much of the internal opposition to the Mugabe administration. Amnesty International and the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions called on the UN and the African Union to intervene. UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw urged African nations to stop ignoring what was happening in Zimbabwe, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged the Africa Union to speak out over the "tragic" events.
Etymology of the word "Murambatsvina" The word was initially used to refer to a communal village worker by the Shona who lived in "reserves". Murambatsvina is a combination of two Shona words which are 'muramba' and 'tsvina'. The first word can be interpreted to mean "to refuse" and the second one translated means "dirt". These people were employed by the ministry of health to improve levels of sanitation in these areas, to communicate health information, etc. Police Inspector John Tupiri of Operations Manicaland decided on the name "Murambatsvina". The Zimbabwean police were ruthless in executing their duties with the result that they were dreaded by the local populace. The sense behind the word therefore mirrors the alleged purpose of the operation as asserted by the government of Zimbabwe.http://zimcrisis.blogspot.com
Overview
Zimbabweans refer to the operation as "Zimbabwe's tsunami", in reference to the devastation which followed the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The crackdown has affected most of the major cities in the country, and the Zimbabwean government has stated its intention to widen the operation to include rural farming areas. Estimates of the number of people affected vary considerably. The latest United Nations figures estimate that it has led to the unemployment of 700,000 people and affected a further 2.4 million people countrywide. Earlier, the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum estimated that 64,677 families had been displaced, representing a total of approximately 323,385 people"Order out of Chaos, or Chaos out of Order?: A Preliminary Report on Operation 'Murambatsvina'" , Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, June 2005 () (this estimate was based on figures from 45 locations). However, according to the police only 120,000 people have been affected."Homes 'smashed' by Zimbabwe paramilitary police", smh.com.au, 5 July 2005.
Whichever figures are correct, large numbers of people have been affected, all of whom are in need of emergency relief and resettlement following the loss of their homes and livelihood.Driving out the filth in Zimbabwe, Radio Netherlands Archives, January 31, 2007 The clearances have been condemned both internally and internationally. A report written by Anna Tibaijuka, the executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme, was handed to the Zimbabwean government on 21 July 2005."Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe to assess the Scope and Impact of Operation Murambatsvina" , UN Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues in Zimbabwe, 18 July 2005. Excerpts from the report, which calls for all demolitions to be stopped immediately, were made public the following day and describe the operation as a "disastrous venture" which has violated international law and led to a serious humanitarian crisis. The actions of the government are described as indiscriminate, unjustified and conducted without regard for human suffering. The Washington Post on 7 February 2008, described how some men and women displaced from Harare are now walking – 5 hours round-trip every day to work (furthermore without breakfast), because the individual bus fare for one day now costs nearly a week's wages – ZW$10 million.
Background
Overall responsibility for the clearances rests with the ruling party, ZANU-PF. The previous Chairperson of the Harare Commission, Dr. Jameson Kurasha, initiated Operation Murambatsvina weeks after the disputed elections were held there. The Harare Commission led by Sekesai Makwavarara is currently running the affairs of the City of Harare despite the fact that there is a pending application to the High Court questioning its authority to do so. The Commission itself was appointed by Ignatious Chombo, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, leading one Zimbabwean newspaper to comment that "President Mugabe, through the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Ignatious Chombo, is now effectively in control of the City of Harare".Harare MDC Councillors should resign The Standard
Mugabe said the clearances are needed to carry out "a vigorous clean-up campaign to restore sanity" and he has described the program as an "urban renewal campaign." Chombo has described the operation in terms of 'restoring order': "It is these people who have been making the country ungovernable by their criminal activities actually."Police to use live ammo, army rolls into suburbs ZimOnline, 28 May 2005 The Zimbabwean Police Commissioner, Augustine Chihuri, said that Operation Murambatsvina was meant to "clean the country of the crawling mass of maggots bent on destroying the economy.""Priests told: don't aid filth", Times Online UK, 17 June 2005.
While police have carried out most of the demolitions, they have been supported by the army and the National Youth Service. Many inhabitants have been forced to destroy their own homes, sometimes at gunpoint."Operation Murambatsvina Restore Order" , Kubatana.
People whose homes have been demolished are being told to return to the rural areas or face further action from the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the dreaded Central Intelligence Organization. Education Minister Aeneas Chigwedere claimed that there is "nobody in Zimbabwe who does not have a rural home"."Teachers decry Mugabe's 'clean-up' plan", Mail & Guardian, 15 June 2005.
Alternative reasons for the clearances The Zimbabwean government argued that Operation Murambatsvina was about restoring order (see section above). However, the timing of the clearances, after the disputed parliamentary elections on 31 March 2005, combined with the contradictory nature of the operation, suggests alternative motivations for the demolitions.
Political retribution The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) argued that the government's main reason for Murambatsvina was to punish the urban poor for voting for the opposition during the March parliamentary elections. The cities are traditionally MDC strongholds, and the Harare Commission that initiated the campaign was set up to override the governing powers of the elected MDC City Council. However, the retribution as a rationale is somewhat undermined by the fact that some ZANU-PF supporters, including liberation war-veterans, were in the squatter camp clearances. The hypothesis that Operation Murambatsvina was political retribution is strengthened by the recurrence of a similar operation just after the disputed 2018 election. After a demonstration staged by the urban population against the Zimbabwe Government, an order was given to the municipalities to mirror the 'tsunami' operation that saw many demolitions taking place in January 2019, leaving many people destitute.
Weaken the political opposition Tererai Karimakwenda noted the similarity between the operation's name and the Gukurahundi campaign conducted as part of Mugabe's struggle against the Matabele tribe in the early 1980s. The Gukurahundi campaign dissolved Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) when it merged with Robert Mugabe's party in 1987. Karimakwenda speculated that the government attempted to force the MDC to merge with the ruling party.Karimakwenda, Tererai (29 January 2008), ""Govt opening 'people’s shops' to control food ahead of elections", The Zimbabwe Station. Retrieved 6 October 2017.
Karimakwenda also argued that by forcing urban voters out into the rural areas, the cities will be de-populated of MDC supporters, enabling the government to re-populate shanty town areas with ZANU-PF supporters. Further, MDC supporters would be forced to return to areas traditionally viewed as ZANU-PF strongholds.
Science and Technology Deputy Minister Patrick Zhuwawo used state media to say that the government had demarcated nearly 10,000 residential stands at Whitecliff Farm for allocation to what he called "deserving people"."Purge of the urban poor" , Kubatana. The Independent interpreted this to mean "ZANU-PF supporters" and supports the view by identifying the presence of "ZANU-PF sharks" at the centre where people were meant to sign up for new stands."Spreading tentacles of patronage", The Independent. A different source reported that, in Bulawayo, a ZANU-PF representative was tasked with compiling a list of future stand beneficiaries, and the resulting list was dominated by known ZANU-PF supporters. One opposition supporter, whose name was not on the list, alleges that he was bluntly told he had supported the wrong party., SW Radio Africa, 22 July 2005.
Controlling political protest Potential for mass uprisings was reported in the immediate aftermath of the 2005 parliamentary elections, widely viewed by the west as neither free nor fair. Human rights advocate and outspoken government critic, Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube publicly called for a peaceful uprising before the elections, claiming they had already been fixed."Zimbabwe cleric urges 'uprising'", BBC News, 27 March 2005.
The Sunday Times reported that, by dispersing MDC supporters to remote rural locations, the ZANU-PF government would find it easier to control an angry population in the event of possible riots or mass protests. David Coltart, the MDC's legal affairs spokesperson, described the operation as a sinister pre-emptive strike to remove the maximum possible number of people from urban areas to rural areas where they are easier to control"."Mugabes regime lays waste to buildings in new terror tactic", Times Online, 5 June 2005.
The Mail & Guardian suggested former Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam, who fled to Harare in 1991 as the Derg fell from power, may have given Robert Mugabe the idea, warning the Zimbabwean leader that the swelling slum and backyard population in Zimbabwe was creating a fertile ground for a mass uprising.
Risk management as part of future government reform The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum advanced another reason for pre-emptively dispersing citizens living in opposition party strongholds. They point to the fact that the government faces an unprecedented economic crisis of fuel and food shortages, rampant hyperinflation, and virtually no foreign currency. To resolve the crisis, they argued the ZANU-PF government would be forced, against its will, to re-engage with the international community: