IDPs OF ZIMBABWE

IDPs of Zimbabwe

IDPs of Zimbabwe

Introduction

It is impossible to say with confidence how many Zimbabweans are internally displaced. UNDP estimated that a million farm workers and their families lost their homes and livelihoods as a result of the fast-track land reform programme which started in 2000 and which led to the almost complete collapse of the commercial farming sector in Zimbabwe. The UN estimated that 570,000 people were made homeless by the urban demolitions of Operation Murambatsvina (“clear the filth”) in 2005, while the government destroyed the homes of thousands of informal mine workers in Operation Chikorokoza Chapera (“stop the gold panning”) in late 2006 and early 2007. Estimates of the number of people displaced by the 2008 electoral violence range between 36,000 and 200,000 (www.unhcr.org). Systemic causes of homelessness in Zimbabwe are economic, demographic, political, sociocultural, and natural.

The national economic crisis is a major cause of homelessness. It has widened the affordability gap (the cheapest house now costs more than thirty times the annual minimum wage) and crippled the ability of housing delivery systems to improve supply. From a peak of some 25,000 units per annum in 1992, national housing production had by 2003 slumped to below 10,000 units per annum (www.internal-displacement.org).

Discussion on condition of IDPs

Demographic causes include rural-to-urban migration and natural increases. The rural-urban influx, which rose dramatically after independence in 1980, continues unabated. The new arrivals exert a strain on available housing. Consequently, demand outstrips supply, thereby contributing to increased housing costs and the mushrooming of unauthorized settlements and slums (Zinyama, 2007).

Nearly half of the 2.9 percent annual increase in the national urban population is attributable to people born and raised in urban areas. Almost all of these continue to stay there, forming new households that add to the oversubscribed demand for housing.

Since 2000, politics has become a significant cause of homelessness. This period coincides with two direct causes of homelessness: land redistribution and politically motivated violence. Over 250,000 households accounting for more than 2 million people have been evicted from over 3,000 white-owned commercial farms seized by the government in the land-redistribution program (Auret, 2006). This figure exceeds 14 percent of the national population. Political violence in rural areas has created an influx of refugees. Most have had their homesteads destroyed. By mid-April 2002, more than 50,000 people had been displaced.

Fundamental changes in the social system are also contributing to homelessness. The extended family, which used to offer mutual security and support, is disappearing. This is most pronounced in urban areas (www.unhcr.org). Economic difficulties have been forcing people to withdraw into smaller family units. This partly explains the upsurge of child-headed households and urban street children.

Between 1999 and 2001, rural Zimbabwe experienced three major natural disasters that caused homelessness, in the form of cyclone-induced floods that hit the eastern and southern parts of the country, rendering more than 250,000 people homeless.

To complicate matters, a substantial proportion of the displaced have been displaced multiple times by successive operations (www.internal-displacement.org). Thus many displaced farm workers who went to ...