EPWORTH - Every winter Danai Motsi shudders with dread. Her home was destroyed during Operation Murambatsvina in 2005 and today she lives in a tiny shack with her three children. A short walk from her shack is the graveyard of her home that was razed to the ground. Today new houses are being constructed.
“We used to live in Chiremba in a decent house but they were all destroyed by the government which promised that they could give us decent alternative accommodation, that has of course not materialised,” she said.
Today Motsi earns a living breaking granite rocks into quarry to resell. The squatter camp where close to 500 people live is a microcosm of the bigger picture in the country.
According to the United Nations, Operation Murambatsvina left close to a million people homeless and many of the victims currently live in sub-human conditions in areas such as Hopley Farm and Epworth. Most camps have no access to safe drinking water or toilet facilities. There is no electricity and the majority of the people are unemployed.
Motsi has long lost faith in the government that failed to make alternative accommodation available and the local council demands that she pay US$600 to get a stand in Glenwood Park, an area that is meant to house victims of
Murambatsvina.
“Where do I find the money to buy a stand for $600? The money that I make from crashing stone is barely enough for subsistence,” she said.
Following the international condemnation of Operation Murambatsvina that also left several people dead President Robert Mugabe promised to build houses for the displaced in yet another operation that was code-named Operation Garikai, but only a handful of houses were built.
“I do not know a person amongst us who benefited from Operation Garikai, said Motsi.
The illegal settlers pay US$10 a month to the local board and the authorities have left them alone for now. They have cut down trees for cooking, grow maize for subsistence and are now down to the boulders that define Epworth on the map of the country. Soon or later the rocks could disappear completely.
“We do not target any rock when we break them into quarry, we leave the more beautiful rocks as we have respect for our heritage,” said one young stone breaker.
Post published in: Politics