Situation two Resettlement area: Matabeleland North Five families: approx 17 people Originally from Killarney informal settlement All of these families are foreign nationals, descended from Malawian or Zambian parents, but themselves born in Zimbabwe. They had never lived in a rural area before, but were forcibly dumped in this resettlement area in July 2005, after being abducted from churches by the police. They were allocated plots by the local community leader, but found themselves in the middle of a difficult land dispute, where the plots they were allocated had been already allocated to others. In October 2005, the families had reported that they were very unsettled and unhappy about the lack of security of tenure, long distances to the clinic, and lack of resources with which to start building a life for themselves, supposing they got tenure. Update: June 2006 Eight months later, out of the five families dumped here, only one remains in the resettlement area, and four have returned to Bulawayo. One family is in Mahatshula suburb of Bulawayo, the other three are in Killarney, where they were living before the demolitions. Why did four out of five families return to Bulawayo? Four families did eventually get land ownership certificates in the resettlement area, saying that they had security of tenure and owned their homesteads, although for two families this involved one further move within the resettlement area first. Three families planted crops. The other two families did not even attempt to do this. In April, two of the three families who planted reported they expected reasonable harvests, but the third felt that their harvest would not be more than a few months of food. The husband in this third family was already back in town and the wife was pregnant. By June, the wife had returned to town too. She reported that they had harvested a few months supply of food. The homestead had been left empty, and we have the impression that this family will not maintain a rural home, but will merely return there from time to time to collect part of their harvest until it is gone. The wife further commented that in their rural area, families are supposed to work on Wednesdays to repair the communal fence around the cropping fields. If you miss this exercise, you are fined $ 200 (thousand) per week. She is worried that as they have missed this exercise for several months, they may return to find the community demanding a thousand (million) dollars or more from them. This concern is her greatest worry. She thinks this resettlement set up is too expensive for her and her family and she would rather live somewhere that does not have such fines and communal overheads. Their son who is 8 is now at school in Mahatshula in Bulawayo as the distance to school was too great in the rural areas. It took him all day until sunset to get home from school. She further complained that the shops were too far away in the rural areas. One of the families who did not even plant is back in Bulawayo at Cement Siding. The husband of this couple has left for South Africa. The wife and their three children share a wooden cabin with her sister with her three kids – and another couple. There are four adults and six children sharing one wooden room! 55