4. “Operation Round Up”: Vagrancy – a new target “We don’t want destitutes, we don’t want vagrants. We want everyone to lead a normal life.” [Commissioner of Police Augustine Chihuri, Sunday News, 14 May 2006] During May 2006, government once more clamped down mainly on Harare, where more than 10,000 “squatters, street kids and youths” were allegedly arrested over Easter and Independence Day.41 These thousand of “vagrants” were rounded up and taken to a farm on the outskirts of Harare. Police announced that they would vet people and return them – to their rural homes. Again, those rounded up were criminalised; the news of their arrest was accompanied by claims that street kids and vagrants were responsible for crime in the city. However, some of those who were rounded up reported that they were not vagrants, that arrests were arbitrary and that many of them were in fact forced to provide free labour on farms owned by senior government officials.42 In Bulawayo, arrests also occurred but on a very small scale. Around 40 vagrants were picked up, some of them blind and others mentally ill; 22 men were taken to Mlondolozi prison for psychiatric evaluation, while the rest were released – straight back on to the streets.43 This harassment of Zimbabwe’s poorest and most vulnerable must be condemned. While we may all agree that it would be wonderful for everyone to have “normal lives”, the cure is not to punish those who appear not to do so by banishing them to the most shocking of holding camps – or to a psychiatric jail, without any crime other than poverty. The cure is good governance, economic recovery and the renewal of social services that have fallen into total collapse. 5. Operation Garikai / Hlalani Kuhle: A scandal of dismal delivery and ZANU PF patronage In August 2006, not one single OGHK house in Bulawayo is ready for occupancy. Nor is there any prospect of this situation improving before the end of the year. In other words, the total number of people now housed as a result of OGHK in Bulawayo is – nil! A summary: OGHK during 2005 Our previous report, “Crime of Poverty”, was released six weeks after government’s self imposed deadline for the end of phase one of their massive reconstruction programme, OGHK. It was clear that the sudden announcement of the biggest housing scheme in the history of Africa was hastily made to cover up for the cruelty of the demolitions, which threw 560,000 people out of shelter in the middle of winter.44 Claims were suddenly made of 300,000 housing units being 41 The Chronicle, 15 May 2006, “Thousands of squatters, street youths picked up”. Interview with human rights activist, Harare, June 2006. 43 The Sunday News, 15 May 2006, “State to find lasting solutions to vagrancy”. 44 It was the opinion of the UN team that OGHK was belatedly arrived at; the Zimbabwe government was unable to present any documentary evidence to the contrary. It is not believable that a scheme to build 300,000 houses – or even 25,000 - could not be backed by extensive planning documents. Minister of Finance, Herbert Murerwa 42 26