10 Zimbabwe: No justice for the victims of forced evictions Table 1: Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle sites visited by Amnesty International in April/May 2006 Location Site name Harare Hatcliffe Approximate number of houses constructed30 72/110 Harare Whitecliffe 400/470 Harare Hopley IDP camp 200 Bulawayo Cowdray Park 700 Masvingo -- 100 Chipinge Gaza 50 Victoria Falls -- 100 Gwanda -- 246 Mutare Chikanga 300 The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has stated that the right to adequate housing “should not be interpreted in a narrow or restrictive sense of … merely having a roof over one’s head."31 The Committee has provided a definition of "adequacy" in relation to the right to housing and identifies certain aspects of the right that should always be taken into account in determining whether housing is "adequate." These include: legal security of tenure; availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; affordability and habitability.32 As the following sections of the report clearly illustrate, the houses and stands built or developed under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle fail to meet these criteria. The figures: too little, too late Amnesty International found that Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle has failed to provide a solution for the vast majority of Operation Murambatsvina victims. Very few houses have been constructed and the majority of those designated as “built” are incomplete, do not have access to adequate water or sanitation facilities, and are uninhabited. The residential plots of land (stands) allocated under Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle do not come with any support to construct a house. 30 In the case of Harare, Bulawayo, Gwanda and Masvingo, local government officials provided numbers, which were approximates in some cases. The community at Hatcliffe estimated 72 houses had been constructed while a parliamentary report claimed 109. In all other cases figures were obtained from churches and NGOs. Amnesty International undertook site visits and was able to confirm the approximate numbers by a rough house count in most cases, although counts were not done in Hopley or Victoria Falls. 31 See CESCR, General Comment No.4 paragraph 7. 32 See CESCR, General Comment No.4 paragraph 8. Amnesty International 8 September 2006 AI Index: AFR 46/005/2006