Operation Murambatsvina is going to be a massive exercise in the CBD and the suburbs which will see to the demolition of all illegal structures and removal of all activities at undesignated areas, among the prior mentioned activities. I, as the Commission Chairperson of Harare declare Operation Murambatsvina officially launched and I urge all residents to remember kuramba tsvina. Our aim is to keep Harare clean. What is your aim? Your aim will help. The person making this poorly worded, vague and confused announcement is head of an unelected body of Commissioners. These Commissioners were appointed by the Minister of Local Government after the elected Council of Harare had been sacked by Government. In Harare therefore the Operation Murambatsvina was implemented by an institution that was not democratically elected by the people of Harare. On the same day that the text of this infamous speech appeared in the Herald newspaper , this newspaper also 1 carried a notice from the City of Harare. The notice started by noting that, in the Greater Harare area, people had erected unauthorised and illegal structures in contravention of the Regional, Town and Country Planning Act [Chapter 29:12]. It referred specifically to illegal outbuildings, wooden and metal shanties used for human habitation and the conducting of illegal businesses. The City Council stated that, because of this illegality, it was issuing an enforcement order in terms of s 32 of the Regional, Town and Country Act. This order required the persons who had erected illegal structures to cease to use them and to demolish them. It also stated that this order was only to come into operation on 20 June 2005. Additionally the Council issued a prohibition order in terms of s 34 of the Act ordering owners, occupiers, and users of illegal structures to discontinue forthwith the use of such illegal structures, demolish the structures and remove all rubbish arising from the demolition of the structures. The use of these structures by the users was, it was said in the notice, not only a serious contravention of the provisions of the Act, but also “seriously injure[d] the amenities of the area by creating and maintaining unsightly objectionable and undesirable health conditions in the locality.” Only a few days after this notice appeared, completely ignoring the date specified for the coming into operation of the enforcement order, a massive operation started not only in Harare, but countrywide. Clearly, the Harare City Council did not decide alone to embark on the clean-up operation. Considerable advance planning would have been required for such a huge scale enterprise, and undoubtedly the Cabinet would have had to give its approval to its implementation by the police and the local authorities right across the country. Before examining further the nature and impact of this campaign, it is important to refer briefly to the social, economic, and political background to the current events. Political, social and economic background From 1980 until 1990, ZANU (PF), the ruling party, moved in the direction of establishing a legislated one-party state, with itself as the sole legal political party in Zimbabwe. Although, in 1990, it dropped from the agenda the