The Harare Metropolitan Residents Forum (HAMREF) is condemning ongoing forced evictions in Harare, calling them a violation of human rights and urging for an independent inquiry.
While they support the government’s fight against land grabs, HAMREF strongly objects to the methods used, emphasizing that evictions must be a last resort and follow international protocols. They criticize the current approach of intimidation and incarceration, warning of a potential humanitarian crisis similar to the 2005 Operation Murambatsvina.
“While we are in tandem with the government in the fight against land grabs and illegal land sales both in communal and urban areas, we disagree with the manner which the government is implementing to resolve the issue.”
“We affirm that any decision to initiate an eviction, the government must have demonstrated that these evictions are unavoidable and consistent with international human rights commitments. The fundamental obligation of Government is to protect and improve houses and neighbourhoods, mther than damage or destroy them,” reads a statement.
They criticized the current approach of issuing statements, intimidation, and incarceration as insufficient and counterproductive, warning that hasty evictions, reminiscent of the 2005 Operation Murambatsvina which displaced 700,000 people, risk creating a humanitarian crisis.
“In terms of international human rights law, there must be procedural safeguards before and after an eviction in order to ensure that other human rights are not violated, and simply issuing statements, intimidating and incarcerating the victims is not sufficient to safeguard the human rights of these victims but further violate other human rights provided in our Constitution.
“Conducting evictions or demolitions in haste without considering procedural safeguards has a potential to create a serious humanitarian catastrophe just like the 2005 Operation Murambatsvina which left 700 000 people homeless,” the statement indicated.
HAMREF also criticized the targeting of victims while powerful, politically connected individuals and corrupt officials who facilitated the illegal land sales remain unscathed.
They pointed out that allowing informal settlements to exist for over 20 years reflects administrative failures by both local and central authorities, urging a measured approach instead of the current haste, stating that this fuels suspicions of the evictions being politically motivated.
