During the demolitions in Bulawayo, the police rounded up 1,400 displaced persons who were being housed in the churches and forcibly dumped them in rural areas around Matabeleland. The authors have been tracking some of these families over the past year: follow up reveals that around 75% of these families are now back in the urban setting, where they live in appalling conditions, in shacks that are very inferior to those demolished. While conditions in the urban areas are dire, those in rural areas are perceived by many to be even worse. Even forced relocation to rural areas has failed to change this perception, or people’s urban identity. However, people have been severely impoverished and highly stressed by continual movements: all have lost possessions and many have lost their health. A distressing number have died. OM has left the informal sector in misery and disarray. The terrible exercise of destroying people’s shelter and vending marts has left large sectors of urban populations criminalised by the very government that should protect their rights. It has also undermined the power of local urban councils, by the imposition of army headed committees who have overriding powers in the government’s rebuilding exercise. The UN and the government of Zimbabwe have been at an impasse over how to proceed on the issue of housing. The government is opposed to construction of temporary shelter because that would mean acknowledging people were thrown into crisis by the demolitions, which is still officially denied. The UN has been opposed to building permanent shelters because of concerns over issues of tenure. However, the option is to continue to do almost nothing, or to do something. Solidarity Peace Trust believes that there is no solution to the humanitarian crisis faced by those left in the cold and rain, other than to go ahead and build decent shelter, and to deal with the issue of tenure as an ongoing struggle. If this is not done, then in a year from now, more Zimbabweans will have been forced into the Diaspora, or will be eking out lives of even worse poverty and despair. Photo 2: One year on, a woman sits in the debris of what used to be her house, June 2006. 9