the area. This is a rare success story among those who were forcibly dumped back in rural
areas.
Situation eight
Ngozi Mine: informal settlement razed to the ground in June 2005
Around 400 settlers lived here at that time
Interviews: June and July 2010
During OM, everyone in this area lost all their possessions. Ngozi Mine is close to the
municipal rubbish dumps, and people in the vicinity often scavenge from the dumps as a way
of surviving. People living here are among Bulawayo’s poorest and most vulnerable.
By 2006, this settlement was slowly rebuilding itself. However the community remained very
afraid of strangers and very hesitant to talk to outsiders. People when asked, all professed not
to be actually living there, but to be just passing through.
Update 2010
There is once more a visible and settled group of several hundred people living at Ngozi Mine,
once more under various headmen on the same principle as in a rural area. In some cases,
people have now rebuilt substantial homesteads, while others remain very makeshift (see
photos). As mentioned in the previous Case Study Three, some people have chosen inventive
means to survive, such as reclaiming wire to make link fencing, or making sculptures out of
plastic bags. One woman is sewing using scavenged scraps of fabric, selling quilts to her
neighbours. Many children are out of school owing to a lack of school fees.
All are determined to stay at Ngozi Mine, and as in the case of Killarney, several families
reported that they have lived there for more than a decade and have no other home. Several
interviewees also reported that they had hidden away when the churches came to offer
people refuge, and had simply lived in the bush for a few weeks before gradually rebuilding
their shelters. Two interviewees had been among those taken in by the churches and then
forcibly dumped by the state in Tsholotsho. They had promptly walked back to Ngozi Mine.
Situation nine
Victoria Falls
An estimated 15,000 displaced when suburbs were razed
Interviews: May, June, July 2010
In terms of percentage of town demolished, Victoria Falls was one of the worst affected areas
in the country. The UN refers to 64% of dwellings being demolished during OM. Many of the
houses demolished were substantial dwellings. When we revisited in 2006, we observed that
people had rebuilt houses that were barely a meter off the ground in order not to draw official
attention. Others were living in shell houses, with up to six tin shacks being built inside the
brick frame of large but incomplete houses.
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