From: barnhart@gagme.chi.il.us (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS: ZIMBABWE: HOW ZIMBABWE TREATS ITS SQUATTERS
Originator: barnhart@gagme
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 19:09:05 GMT


Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Agriculture
Title: ZIMBABWE: HOW ZIMBABWE TREATS ITS SQUATTERS


an inter press service feature

by andrew zhakata

norton, zimbabwe, oct 2 (ips) -- undeterred by the scorching
heat, 35-year-old muslin tembeza desperately scours the parched
field for leftover grains.

''i would not be picking the grains one by one like chickens
if we were getting enough food'', says tembeza, trying in vain
to lull a hungry baby strapped on her back.

tembeza is one of more than 3,000 squatters who were raided
by harare city council officials and the police from 19 squatter
camps around the zimbabwean capital a few days before britain's
queen elizabeth's visit and the commonwealth heads of state and
government meeting in october last year.

with their scanty belongings, the squatters were forcibly
taken to porta farm, near the farming town of norton, about 40
km west of harare. owned by the harare city council, porta farm
was once a sewage disposal area.

porta farm is being used as a transit camp where the
government screens the squatters to determine people
elligible for resettlement and repatriation.

more than 650 former squatters and their families have been
housed at dzivarasekwa high-density suburb, 13 kms west of
harare, in two roomed log-cabins with monthly rentals of 100
zimbabwe dollars (20 u.s dollars).

another 300 have been accommodated in resettlement schemes
throughout the country while more than 250 people have been
repatriated to their home countries -- malawi, mozambique and
zambia.

squatters still at porta farm are awaiting transfers either
to the log-cabins or resettlement schemes. plans are underway to
resettle another 500 people from the camp by the end of this
year.

while some of the former squatters had initially been
thrilled about being given a place to settle legally, the
excitement has ebbed because of severe shortages of food and
''extremely harsh conditions'' at the camp.

organisations comprising religious groups, non-governmental
organisations and the zimbabwe government's department of social
welfare have been helping the squatters with food handouts since
october last year. (more/ips)


zimbabwe: how (2)

''but we are not getting enough food here. how can a family
man with five children survive on five kg of mealie-meal for two
weeks'', says 45-year-old venias sakirayi, who started squatting
in 1985 after losing his job.

some of the squatters complain about discrimination in the
provision of food. they are now being given maize meal only. in
the early days the rations included beans, dried vegetables,
kapenta fish and maize-meal.

''only the mentally-handicapped, the physically disabled, the
aged and others who cannot fend for themselves are the ones who
are eligible for handouts. this is unfair. we are all former
squatters and should therefore be treated equally'', nickson
tuba told ips.

the severe shortage of food at porta farm has resulted in
scores of squatters like tembeza resorting to scrounging for
food in nearby farms. others have been forced to drift back to
harare where they have reverted to their begging activities and
foraging for food in dustbins.

''we escaped from porta farm because of food shortage, poor
living conditions in plastic shacks riddled with termites and
harsh conditions imposed by some administrators who intimidated
and made us virtual prisoners'', says disgruntled 52-year-old
nhamo monga.

porta farm camp is a ''no go '' area for journalists.
permission to visit the camp from the harare city council and
the ministry of local government is not easily granted.
interviews to get for information about the camp are no longer
being entertained.

journalists have to sneak into the camp through holes cut in
the wire fence to see what the authorities are trying to hide
from the public.

about 2,000 people who are still at the camp share 48 blair
toilets. the drains are choked with human waste and have become
a haven for flies, posing a health hazard to the dwellers. more
than 12 people have died at port farm since it became
a squatter camp in october last year.

seven of the deceased are understood to have been
malnourished children. the rest were adults who died from
diarrhoea and high blood pressure.

backson sibanda, field director of world vision (zimbabwe)
with a long experience in working with urban destitutes in the
country, says unless zimbabwe seriously addresses the plight of
the landless people, the squatter problem is here to stay.

through its resettlement programme launched at independence
in 1980, the government has only managed to resettle 52,000 of
the original target of 162,000 on 3.3 million ha bought from the
white commercial farmers who own most of the country's fertile
land. (end/ips/az/apc/92)
Xref: sparky soc.culture.african:5237 sanet.talk.politics:74