Case histories: where are they now? In October last year, we provided various detailed scenarios in which we followed families or groups of families in the aftermath of the demolitions, across the length and breadth of Matabeleland. We have maintained contact with most of these groups, and provide updates on where people are now and how they have fared. The majority of people dumped in rural areas, including those who were helped with building and farming materials, are now back at Killarney, Ngozi Mine or in Victoria Falls. Out of 106 people displaced to rural areas by the demolitions, and represented through our case example interviews: 105 • • • 19 % remain in the rural setting 5 % can no longer be traced 75% have returned to an urban setting It should be a salutary lesson to the government of Zimbabwe that even those who had their homes destroyed and lost almost everything, and who after that were forcibly relocated to remote rural areas, have largely returned to the urban setting. Where are those displaced to rural districts in 2005? 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Rural in October 05 Rural in August 06 Unknown in August 06 These findings are even more telling than the study on backyard structures. Even providing people with help in building rural homes, in some instances even the growing of reasonable harvests, has failed to keep people from returning at the earliest opportunity to the urban areas. 105 Some of the families we interviewed in 2005 remained in the urban setting through the demolitions, for example those in the tented camp at Cowdray Park in Bulawayo, or people beaten by the police in Ngozi Mine. They have not been included in the figure of 106 – although we note here that they are all still in an urban setting. However, the majority of individuals or families interviewed for the case examples in 2005 were in the rural setting. Our general observations and interactions with people in Killarney and Ngozi Mine over the last year, have provided us with the conviction that substantially more than half of those forcibly removed are now back. 51