Financial Gazette (Harare)
Staff Reporter
2 June 2005
Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), angry over the government's blitz on informal settlements and flea markets, are readying themselves to intervene in the face of the unfolding humanitarian crisis.
Executives in the NGO sector, jittery over the draconian NGO Act the government intends using to monitor civic organisations, said yesterday they had been shocked by the number of people stranded in the streets following the three-week blitz on informal settlements and flea markets.
They said contingency measures to feed and possibly shelter the estimated 20 000 people affected by the crackdown were being worked out by the various NGOs operating in the country.
"We are working on the needs so that we have a consolidated response to the unfolding crisis," said Fambai Ndirande, an information officer at the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations (NANGO). "The idea is to ease the suffering of the people," Ndirande added.
The government has in the past three weeks demolished flea markets and illegal structures that accommodated lodgers in the high-density suburbs. Hundreds of residents evicted from Mbare are now sleeping at Mbare Musika bus terminus, while others from White Cliff Farm along the Harare-Bulawayo highway have been sleeping along the road following the destruction of their sub-standard structures by armed riot police and the army.
"NANGO hereby calls upon the government to stop the operations immediately until appropriate alternative mechanisms are in place. NANGO is also calling upon all NGOs to respond to the crisis by offering practical solutions and humanitarian assistance to those affected", the association said in a separate statement to The Financial Gazette.
ZimRights, a local human rights body, also added its voice in condemnation of the government's actions. "The move, which has been conducted under the guise of cleaning up the city, is unwarranted and tantamount to condemning citizens to perpetual and abject poverty. ZimRights therefore calls for the immediate end of police raids and that all the confiscated goods be returned to their rightful owners."
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