Why?
by Trudy Stevenson
Like most of us, I have been trying to work out why the regime has embarked on this Operation Murambatsvina - "Operation Arrest and Destroy Everything" as I translate it freely!
It makes no sense, at first glance, for them to be turning people against them at this moment, especially their own people! And quite a lot of the dispossessed are their own people. The majority of Hatcliffe Extension voted ZanuPF in March, not because they necessarily supported that party, but they were too intimidated to do anything else. White Cliff was set up by war vets, ultra-ZanuPF supporters! Harare South has a ZanuPF MP.
I believe there are several reasons for the apparent madness:
a) Retribution - the cities voted MDC, and they need to be taught a lesson.
b) Distraction - people don't notice the failure of the state and the drastic economic decline if they are busy salvaging their wordly possessions - and even their lives! There is also a lot that can be done under the cover of "Arrest and Destroy Everything" - like sorting out the Tsholotsho element!
c) More sinister, however, is the Pol Pot agenda: drive everyone out of the towns and cities back into the rural areas, so they cannot organise themselves and challenge the regime. I doubt that Mugabe really believes they will grow food. If those already in the rural areas are not growing food, why would urbanites do any better? And where are their inputs and implements, and where are they going to be settled? Indeed, where is food available at present? In the cities, not in the rural areas. So - drive people out into the rural areas, and they are likely to starve to death, this year. Extreme? Wasn't it a minister who said a few years ago Zimbabwe would be better off without the 6 million who can't be fed, anyway? He is now a very senior minister.
I do not think we should assist in moving people out of town. That will not help those people, in the long run, especially if my analysis is correct. They will be much worse off in the rural areas. We need to find ways to allow people to remain in their homes and on their stands, especially if they have been paying rent there. If "The People's Choice" was really concerned about people and the cleanliness of the cities, they would first have established the market places (many official market places have been destroyed by the regime) and the alternative accommodation (many people had lease agreeements or paid rent to government/city council), and THEN moved the people.
That they did not do so indicates, in my view, that Operation Arrest and Destroy Everything is intended literally to get rid of a lot of what they consider rubbish - for good. Let us not allow them to do that. Let us stand in solidarity with the suffering and the dispossessed, and help them in every way we can to regain their human dignity and their livelihoods.
It is time to stand together, as Zimbabweans.
Trudy Stevenson MP
Harare North Constituency
Like most of us, I have been trying to work out why the regime has embarked on this Operation Murambatsvina - "Operation Arrest and Destroy Everything" as I translate it freely!
It makes no sense, at first glance, for them to be turning people against them at this moment, especially their own people! And quite a lot of the dispossessed are their own people. The majority of Hatcliffe Extension voted ZanuPF in March, not because they necessarily supported that party, but they were too intimidated to do anything else. White Cliff was set up by war vets, ultra-ZanuPF supporters! Harare South has a ZanuPF MP.
I believe there are several reasons for the apparent madness:
a) Retribution - the cities voted MDC, and they need to be taught a lesson.
b) Distraction - people don't notice the failure of the state and the drastic economic decline if they are busy salvaging their wordly possessions - and even their lives! There is also a lot that can be done under the cover of "Arrest and Destroy Everything" - like sorting out the Tsholotsho element!
c) More sinister, however, is the Pol Pot agenda: drive everyone out of the towns and cities back into the rural areas, so they cannot organise themselves and challenge the regime. I doubt that Mugabe really believes they will grow food. If those already in the rural areas are not growing food, why would urbanites do any better? And where are their inputs and implements, and where are they going to be settled? Indeed, where is food available at present? In the cities, not in the rural areas. So - drive people out into the rural areas, and they are likely to starve to death, this year. Extreme? Wasn't it a minister who said a few years ago Zimbabwe would be better off without the 6 million who can't be fed, anyway? He is now a very senior minister.
I do not think we should assist in moving people out of town. That will not help those people, in the long run, especially if my analysis is correct. They will be much worse off in the rural areas. We need to find ways to allow people to remain in their homes and on their stands, especially if they have been paying rent there. If "The People's Choice" was really concerned about people and the cleanliness of the cities, they would first have established the market places (many official market places have been destroyed by the regime) and the alternative accommodation (many people had lease agreeements or paid rent to government/city council), and THEN moved the people.
That they did not do so indicates, in my view, that Operation Arrest and Destroy Everything is intended literally to get rid of a lot of what they consider rubbish - for good. Let us not allow them to do that. Let us stand in solidarity with the suffering and the dispossessed, and help them in every way we can to regain their human dignity and their livelihoods.
It is time to stand together, as Zimbabweans.
Trudy Stevenson MP
Harare North Constituency
posted at 3:52 pm
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