Between 1991 and 2003, urban poverty trebled in Zimbabwe. It was against this background of escalating economic collapse and social disintegration that “Operation Murambatsvina” (OM), or “Discarding the Filth”, took place in mid 2005. In the space of a few weeks, 700,000 people lost their homes and/or livelihoods in a process that the UN has […]
Tags: Access to resources, demolitions, Human rights, meltdown, murambatsvina, overcrowding, urban identity
more... »
The July UN report on the demolitions in Zimbabwe has become the definitive report on events between May and the end of June 2005. Other reports have covered in detail urban and peri-urban aspects of OM. Political analysis, assessment of the judiciary, and quantification of those affected are variously covered by other human rights reports […]
Tags: abuse of the law, Access to resources, demolitions, Human rights, murambatsvina, overcrowding
more... »
On 19 May 2005, the Government of Zimbabwe began an operation labelled “Operation Murambatsvina” (OM). While Government has translated this to mean “Operation Clean-up”, or “Operation Restore Order”, the more literal translation of “Murambatsvina” is “Drive out the Filth”. This is not the first time this Government has used “cleaning” terminology to describe a process […]
Tags: abuse of the law, Access to resources, demolitions, murambatsvina, overcrowding, urban identity
more... »