Situation Six Rural district, Matabeleland South Informal mining settlement deep in the bush 7 interviewees Originally from Bulawayo back yard structures Re-interviewed, March 2006 Note: there are literally scores of informal mining settlements across Matabeleland, and these have become home to unknown numbers of those forced out of the towns In September 2005, interviews were conducted in this mining settlement with 6 women and 1 man displaced from Bulawayo when their back yard structures were demolished. Two of the women reported that they had been among those forcibly rounded up in the city by police, prior to the visit of the UN envoy to Bulawayo. They were arbitrarily dumped in a rural town around 120 km away, and had no previous links to this area. All those interviewed indicated that they made their way to this mining settlement deep in the bush in the hope of income generation. Some of the women were making money from prostitution, and others by vending. The man was gold mining. Life was very tough and the police often raided looting all their gold, money, and vending wares. Update, March 2006 Shortly after we conducted interviews here in 2005, the entire settlement was razed to the ground by the police. This was around November 2005. The entire make-shift camp (as pictured on the front of the last report) was burnt to the ground in the presence of the people living there: they lost all their possessions. Everyone was rounded up and taken to the police station where they were forced to pay fines for illegal activities. After coming back from paying fines, the community decided to relocate further into the thicket along the river. They were very concerned about not being razed again, and so they did not settle as a cohesive mining camp this time. They have separated their shacks, scattering in the bush so that they are really hidden. Even if the police come they are unlikely to identify more than a few shacks at one time. The miners have managed to avoid being re-raided by the police with this new arrangement. They now only come together for mining activities and do not live as one community. They are scared of visitors, and we can confirm they are really well hidden – it took the interviewers some time to find anyone from the old settlement. By randomly following little trails through the thicket for some time, the authors eventually found some of the miners. They were reluctant to talk at first but eventually accepted the interviewers were not police. In the original visit, six women and one man were identified as being displaced from back yard structures during OM. Of these seven, only two are now left. The other five have relocated. One of the six women is left (photo 16 in last report, and in this one). She is now living with a man who is one of the miners. She looks thin and very unwell. She is now assisting the panners, and is no longer vending. The other five women moved after the settlement was burnt, to a different mine altogether. It was claimed that business at this other mine was better for vendors and women prostitutes. With the new dispersement of people over a wide area, it was hard to find customers. 61