alternative accommodation to the thousands of men, women and children it wished to summarily evict. With the aid of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association (ZimRights) the community brought the case before the High Court. On 23 June 1995 the High Court of Zimbabwe granted a Provisional Order stating that “the applicants are entitled to inhabit their dwellings until they are relocated to suitable permanent homes.” Harare City Council was “interdicted from demolishing or threatening to demolish and evicting or threatening to evict the Applicants from Porta Squatter Camp Area.”12 Harare City Council opposed the court order, but the matter was never concluded and the court order remains applicable, as confirmed by the High Court in 2004. 13 No further action was taken, either to provide alternative accommodation to the residents of Porta Farm or to evict them. Instead the settlement grew and developed as more homeless people took up residence. *** On 25 July 2003 the residents of Porta Farm were told by an official of the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing that they were to be permanently settled where they were and the area would be renamed Porta Agricultural Village. They were shown a map of the area, on which Porta Agricultural Village was identified. The community was happy with this outcome. Although living conditions at the settlement were still relatively poor, with inadequate sanitation facilities, insufficient working water taps and many people living in poor housing conditions, the community believed that the facilities at Porta Farm were significantly better than nothing, and the result of their own efforts which they did not wish to lose. Over the years, with assistance of non-government organisations, the people of Porta Farm had invested in and developed the settlement and many of them had livelihoods associated with the area. They had a primary school and a secondary school, with government-supplied teachers, as well as a small orphanage. 3 2004: Forced eviction attempts by the Ministry of Housing and police misuse of force Almost exactly one year after this announcement, on 24 July 2004, the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Ignatius Chombo, visited Porta Farm, accompanied by soldiers, police officers and government officials. He summarily informed the community that they were to leave Porta Farm by 15 August 2004. He did not say where they would go. The community was simply told that soldiers would take them to places decreed by the Minister and they were to offer no resistance. An NGO working with the community tried to negotiate with the government for more time to consult with the community and agree a proper relocation, but the Ministry of Local Government refused. 14 A Ministry official subsequently told the residents that they were to be moved to Caledonia Farm, on the outskirts of Harare. However, when some of the Porta Farm residents visited the parts of Caledonia Farm where they were due to be resettled, they found bare land, without buildings, schools, sanitary facilities or sources of clean water. During a meeting at Caledonia Farm attended by government officials and Porta Farm residents, representatives of the Ministries of Health, Education and Defence are all reported to have raised concerns about the Ministry of Housing’s plans to relocate the people of Porta Farm to Caledonia without access to adequate basic services. The total lack of facilities was, however, not the Porta Farm community’s only 12 Case No HC 4233/95. Following the initial court action in 1995 the case was not vigorously pursued by either party and court dates were missed. The matter was left unresolved and the terms of the provisional order remained standing as confirmed by the High Court in its decision in September 2004, see below. 14 Shack/Slum Dwellers International, “Porta Farm – the tragedy”, no date. See: http://www.sdinet.org/reports/r2.htm [accessed 13 February 2006]. 13