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UN envoy Flattered Mugabe To Deceive Him

Benhilda Chanetsa - 7/26/2005

HARARE, ZIMBABWE. UN envoy, Anna Tibaijuka, visiting Zimbabwe from June 28 to July 8 2005 to assess the impact of the widely condemned slum clearance operation, appeared a willing tool in the Zimbabwean government’s unending quest to improve its vastly tattered image. She made all the right statements during sanitized government tours of affected areas and proposed new housing sites. The government’s rebuilding program following the demolitions was “commendable”, a sign of “seriousness and clear vision” she gushed. She was rewarded with a trip to the fabulous Victoria Falls. But she was only flattering to deceive. Underneath the smiles and demure exterior was a technocrat, an expert in her field, seeking serious answers and getting inadequate responses from a government which believed it had her in the palm of its hand. She would play ball as others before her had done. Being allowed unlimited access, she sought the answers she needed from the victims, civil society groups and non-governmental organizations. The picture was not a pretty one. She was clearly appalled, but kept her cards close to her chest.

Government was stunned then when Tibaijuka slammed the slum clearance exercise as a “disastrous venture” carried out in “an indiscriminate and unjustified manner” with little or no warning and involving the “wanton destruction of homes, business premises and vending sites” and affecting 700 000 people. “This humanitarian disaster” she said, would take several years to overcome and then only with the assistance of the international community. She called for an immediate halt to the demolitions.

The Zimbabwean government had been had. It had been exposed and cornered. By agreeing to a UN investigation, it bound itself to acceptance of its findings and to abiding by its recommendations. The lack of planning the report outlined seemed to confirm opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) claims that the sole purpose of the clean up was to wipe out its support in its urban stronghold. Government had thus far successfully dismissed the MDC as a puppet party but now the MDC’s concerns were being aired by a respected independent UN analyst. She saw no systematic plan on the ground for devastation of this scale and by implication, no logic to it and was even drawn into urging government to embark on a practicable plan and implementation programme and in to promising UN assistance. In an attempt at damage control, government first dismissed the report as a biased British plot and then President Mugabe, seeing the implicit criticism of his leadership in the report, wangled a promise from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that he would visit Zimbabwe to assess the situation for himself.

But the damage has already been done. In interview with Voice of America (VOA)’s Studio Seven, after the release of the report, Tibaijuka said “I met with the victims, the people affected, the mayors…and others dealing with them. The report reflected the general feelings on the ground.” Everywhere she went, she was met by disaffected people calling on her to rescue them from their misery. At Caledonia holding camp, a transit point for displaced people waiting to be allocated building stands or reloction to their rural homes, there was a clear lack of sanitation, drinking water and tent shelter. This mirrored the plight of many others living in the open or in churches to avoid forced repatriation to their barren and congested rural homes. She felt compelled to tell government officials: “Rural repatriation does not work and has never worked anywhere.”

Local and international statutes requiring some notice to victims and provision of alternative housing before eviction, had clearly been flouted.

At Porta Farm squatter camp, she witnessed first hand, police defiance of two high court orders barring them from demolishing structures without availing alternative accommodation. Even structures set up with Council approval or sanction of government officials were razed to the ground.

Government’s avowed aim of availing Z$3 trillion for its vast rebuilding programme following the demolitions was always suspect given government’s urgent debt to the IMF of US$209 million and lack of money for the importation of 1,2 million tones of maize, fuel, power, drugs and spares. It also made the far-fetched claim that it would build 1,5 million houses over the next four years to deal with the general backlog and 20 000 for the displaced by the end of August. This would mean the government building thousands of houses every day! Tibaijuka will have witnessed many being granted housing stands but little serious building on the ground. In the second city, Bulawayo, she was drawn to ask: “The houses you are talking about, have they been built? Because you have only 40 days to build 1003 (the stated number for that city) houses and I feel timewise it is not f easible.” It’s no wonder her report dismissed government submissions as “allegations” and “rhetoric”.

The unplanned and confused nature of the clean up was mirrored within the ruling Zanu PF party itself which was clearly split on the issue with Vice President Joice Mujuru reportedly opposed. The responsible ministers of Urban Planning and Home Affairs reportedly clashed on which structures were to be demolished. Mugabe claimed it to have been “well-thought” out operation which had been put on hold till after the March election to stop it being deemed an attempt to disenfranchise opposition MDC supporters in the urban areas. But his pronouncements seemed to contradict those of finance minister Herbert Murerwa’s in the press that the clean up had been unbudgeted for and that a supplementary budget was being conceived to cater for the unplanned expense. There was also no evidence of Mugabe campaigning on the basis of a clean up after the election. Tibaijuka was aware of the confusion. “Evidence suggests that it was based on improper advice by a few architects of the operation” and she urged prosecution of “all those who had orchestrated this catastrophe. But it was likely to have been a Mugabe initiative and no prosecutions are likely. He is given to knee jerk reactions when he feels threatened. The urban electorate had rejected him twice in a row. Some kind of measure was likely but the chosen architects disagreed on procedure.