ZIMBABWE: Amnesty International says many of the children made homeless after country's mass slum clearance six years ago have yet to return to school

Record ID: 722503

  • Title: ZIMBABWE: Amnesty International says many of the children made homeless after country's mass slum clearance six years ago have yet to return to school
  • Date: 6th October 2011
  • Summary: HARARE, ZIMBABWE (FILE) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SHACK HOUSES FAMILY SEATED OUTSIDE A SHACK MAN ENTERING INTO A PLASTIC SHACK
  • Embargoed: 21st October 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe
  • Country: Zimbabwe
  • Topics: Education,Politics,Education,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVAAEBH0G6AKRAK3NK2JQ9GHFLI4
  • Story Text: Six years after Zimbabwe's mass slum clearance evicted 700,000 people, many of the children of those made homeless have yet to return to school, Amnesty International said on Wednesday (October 05).
    In 2005, Robert Mugabe's government launched its widely criticised "Operation Murambatsvina", loosely translated as "drive out dirt", and targeted poor urban dwellers and informal traders it said were living in unacceptable squalor.
    The government at the time said it was a land reform initiative calling it 'operation restore order' and said it was aimed at fighting black market trading and other lawlessness in unplanned communities around the country.
    In a report, Amnesty Interanational said schools destroyed during the drive had not been rebuilt while many parents had lost their livelihood and could no longer afford to pay for their children's education.
    "The issue of cost in terms of access to primary education for people living in Operation Murambatsvina is a huge challenge, given that during Operation Murambatsvina not only homes were destroyed but livelihoods were also shattered, small businesses were also targeted, informal markets were targeted," said Amnesty researcher Simeon Mawanza said at the launch of the report in Harare.
    The government has built a few houses for some of the displaced families but has left thousands of others struggling to feed themselves, without decent shelter and basic services like water and sanitation.
    "Up to now six years on, people are struggling to raise school fees because there has been no deliberate investment by the government also supporting NGOs who are doing this kind of work to restore livelihoods which were shattered during Operation Murambatsvina," said Mawanza.
    "When we spoke to teachers in informal schools they also reported that most of these children, their attendance in school is also problematic because during the rainy season they also have to work in the family fields, they also sometimes not paying school fees in time and they get sent away, they also can not do their homework on time because of the living structures," he added.
    Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change, which formed a unity government with Mugabe's ZANU-PF party two years ago, has previously said the slum clearance was meant to punish urban voters for supporting the MDC.
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