Between 1991 and 2003, urban poverty trebled in Zimbabwe. It was against this background of
escalating economic collapse and social disintegration that “Operation Murambatsvina” (OM),
or “Discarding the Filth”, took place in mid 2005. In the space of a few weeks, 700,000 people
lost their homes and/or livelihoods in a process that the UN has referred to as “indiscriminate
and unjustified”. More than two million others suffered related losses as a result of the
demolitions.