Amnesty International and
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
Zimbabwe
Shattered lives - the case of
Porta Farm
31 March 2006
Summary
AI Index: AFR 46/004/2006
For more than a decade the community of Porta Farm struggled to assert their right to housing. In
June 2005 that struggle effectively ended when heavily armed police forcibly evicted the people
of Porta Farm and destroyed their homes. The evictions were carried out despite the existence of
two High Court orders which clearly stated that the people of Porta Farm should not be evicted
unless and until the authorities ensured the provision of suitable alternative accommodation.
At the time of its destruction, Porta Farm was home to between 6,000 and 10,000 people. This
community joined the hundreds of thousands of other victims of the government’s Operation
Murambatsvina (Restore Order) - a countrywide programme of mass forced evictions and the
demolition of homes and informal businesses. The United Nations (UN) has estimated that in six
weeks between May and July 2005, 700,000 people across Zimbabwe lost their homes, their
livelihoods, or both as a consequence of Operation Murambatsvina.
Following the destruction of Porta Farm many community members were forcibly relocated, first
to Caledonia Farm Transit Camp and then to Hopley Farm, where they were left with no shelter
and almost no means of accessing food. Initially the government refused to allow the UN and
humanitarian organisations to provide assistance to internally displaced persons (IDPs) at Hopley
Farm. Following UN negotiations with the government, the people at Hopley Farm are now
receiving some humanitarian aid. However, the government of Zimbabwe has repeatedly blocked
attempts to provide a full programme of emergency shelter for the homeless and overall
conditions at Hopley Farm remain poor. The government has indicated that the displaced are to
be permanently resettled at Hopley Farm, but it is unclear how or when sufficient housing and
infrastructure for basic services such as water and sanitation will be provided for all those forcibly
relocated to Hopley Farm. Moreover, the absence of any legal security of tenure leaves people
vulnerable to further evictions.
Focusing on the case study of Porta Farm, this report looks at how the government of Zimbabwe
has violated a range of human rights through the forcible eviction and forcible displacement of
people, and through its subsequent failures to ensure even minimal essential levels of rights to
water, food and housing of those who were internally displaced.