C.
Operation “Live Well” and internationally sponsored
housing schemes
1.
A Grand rehousing scheme: Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle – “live well”
Some weeks into the demolitions, and with UN official Anna Tibaijuka’s visit looming, the
government suddenly declared a massive housing programme, which allegedly had pre‐
existed the decision to destroy informal settlements. 300,000 housing units were promised
within the following year, and another 250,000 each year until 2008.61
Immediate outcome:
By the end of 2006, fewer than 2,000 new units had been partially built countrywide. These
units were of a shocking standard and lacked basic services. Corruption in allocations and
scandals of poor planning and workmanship dogged the OGHK programme.62
Five years on:
No further units have been built in the last five years. Many of the two thousand units built
stand empty and unusable, while others, such as those in Hatcliff and Hopley Farm, Harare,
have become inhabited slums, with no access to water or sewerage. Some have fallen down.
People in informal settlements now live in dwellings that are seriously reduced in quality
from those destroyed, which is a product both of fear of being demolished again, and
poverty.63
2.
International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and UN housing – some progress,
but not enough
In 2006, the UN had a target of 23,000 units of housing to be built during that year, but in fact
around 4% of these were ever built. In Meltdown, we recognised the obstacles faced by
international agencies in building new units, which included:
The UN cannot act unilaterally but has to sign a bilateral agreement with the recipient
nation, and there was a prolonged and difficult stand off around this, exacerbated by
government fury at the UN Report.
Destruction of IOM tented communities by the government – “we are not a tents
people”.
Obstruction of access to the displaced, especially at Hopley Farm.
Obstructive reactions to the “UN model house” by the Minister of Local Government;
this brick and asbestos house, intended as a stop‐gap measure to get people out of the
rain, was dismissed as “unfit for human habitation”.
Insecurity of tenure: would IDPs retain ownership of their houses, or would they
quickly be pushed out to house army or police, for example?
In the last five years, IOM has built 2,000 housing units across the country, mostly in
Mashonaland. In Matabeleland, a housing scheme consisting of 33 houses was recently
opened in Bulawayo, and another 100 housing units were handed over in Plumtree.64 IOM had
61 Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo promised this: Zimbabwe Independent, 9 December 2005, “Govt
slips on Garikai targets”.
62 SPT (2006) for details.
63 See section ahead on Killarney for example.
64 Official hand over ceremony was on 4 July 2010: figures here are those given at the opening ceremony.
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