Zimbabwe: 1.5 Million People Are Homeless in Zimbabwe - Report Reveals, As Zimrights Calls for Repeal of Vagrancy Act

THE Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) has renewed calls for the repeal of the colonial era Vagrancy Act, which criminalises homelessness.

The Vagrancy Act (Chapter 10:25), criminalises homelessness and disproportionately affects marginalised communities as it gives power to the police to arrest and charge homeless people.

The law also criminalises any person who assists people living on the streets.

Speaking at the launch of their 2024 Annual Report, Dzikamai Bere, National Director for ZimRights, said an estimated over a million Zimbabweans do not have homes, adding that nine people previously died in police custody after they were arrested using that law.

"We have a vagrancy act, a colonial piece of legislation that makes it a criminal offence for you to not have a place to stay and if the police find you on the road, they can arrest and charge you under the Act and about US$1.5 million people are affected by that law.

"At one point, about nine people died in police custody after they had been arrested as vagrants.

"We have sent a petition to parliament and we are in the process of engaging with the parliament so that the law may be removed," Bere said.

ZimRights last year launched a campaign to repeal the Vagrancy Act and later petitioned parliament.

The campaign was driven by concerns from communities in Chitungwiza and Harare, where growing numbers of homeless individuals were increasingly targeted by authorities rather than receiving support.

ZimRights National Chairman Takesure Musiiwa also added that laws like these are outdated policies introduced by former colonial governments to serve their own interests and no longer benefit citizens.

"These are policies which were imposed on us by previous regimes, (the whites) they brought their own issues for their own reasons and as an organisation we are engaging with the government to say can we have a look at this policy, it is not helping our citizens, so how best can we try to change it maybe replace it with a better law which will protect our citizens," Musiiwa said.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.