Our Staff
20 November 2005
TEN families are squatting at a house in Harare's Sunningdale suburb after the government destroyed their houses under "Operation Murambatsvina".
The yard resembles a refugee camp with make-shift shelters and shacks fashioned from just about any material surrounding the main house. An overpowering smell associated with an unclean environment lingers in the air.
When The Standard visited the house last week, a woman with a baby strapped to her back crawled from a shelter made from plastic sheeting. From several other shacks, people crawled in and out while children in various state of undress frolicked in the mud.
At regular intervals, water could be heard flushing down the toilet system.
Amid reports of disease outbreaks and reported deaths of children in many urban centres in the country, the house in Sunningdale is a disaster waiting to happen.
A woman, who identified herself as Amai Leon, described life at the house as a nightmare.
"I am a victim of Operation Murambatsvina and we had no option but to come and squat at this house when our house in Chitungwiza was destroyed," the woman told The Standard.
"The owners are related to my husband and that is how we ended here. We are living like animals and we hope the government can come to our rescue by providing decent accommodation," she said as she wiped sweat cascading down her face.
She shares a shack made of polythene sheeting with her husband and their three-year-old son.
The woman added that the conditions at the house posed a serious health hazard to inhabitants and she feared a possible outbreak of cholera.
Anilliah Masaraure, the Combined Harare Residents' Association's co-ordinator said the suffering at the Sunningdale house reflected the general conditions created by the Zanu PF government when it embarked on the "Operation Murambatsvina" in May.
"People are suffering and it is such a sad situation to see more than two dozen people using one toilet. This exposes them and their children to diseases," she said.
Even though HIV and Aids pandemic continues to be a major problem in Zimbabwe, several women at the house are reported to have resorted to prostitution for survival.
Outspoken Harare businessman, Paddington Japajapa, suggested government should declare a state of emergency in the light of the deteriorating situation in the housing and water delivery situation.
He said: "President Mugabe has been spending billions of dollars traveling all over the world. He should immediately stop his globe trotting and channel all the money towards building houses for the homeless and buying chemicals and equipment to improve water delivery."
Zimbabwe is facing a health disaster which has been created by a combination of government interference in local government administration and the after effects of the ill-conceived "Operation Murambatsvina" now derisively referred to as "Murambavanhu" (anti-people).
The HIV and Aids pandemic is wreaking havoc on the population with nearly one million people desperately needing Anti-Retro-viral drugs.
However, only 12 000 people are receiving the life-saving drugs amid calls that the government was not treating the pandemic as an urgent issue.
At Hopley Farm, a refugee camp for internally displaced people, there are 34 cases of chronically ill people who are cramped into the camp where they live under unhygienic conditions.
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