EDITORIAL COMMENT
THE ongoing eviction of illegal settlers, particularly in Masvingo province, adds to the long list of human rights abuses that the Zanu PF government may find difficult to wish away as it has done with other violations.
A few weeks ago, we carried reports of thousands of villagers in the Chilonga area in Chiredzi who are being displaced from their ancestral land by government to pave way for a private lucerne production project.
Last week, the Masvingo Centre for Research Advocacy and Development (MACRAD) raised an alert saying over 300 people from Gutsaruzhinji village in ward 23, Chiredzi North have been living in the open since July 10, 2020 after they were also displaced in a land dispute.
The villagers’ homes, crops and property were destroyed during the forced evictions. For two months, the evictees have been staying under unsanitary conditions, risking contracting COVID-19 as there is no health care facility nearby.
It’s very sad that these displacements are being fuelled by a Zanu PF MP and councillor, voted into office by the same people on false promises that their stay would be regularised.
The right to shelter is sacrosanct and the government should ensure that it provides alternative shelter to the displaced as a matter of urgency.
Evictions, if need be, should be carried out in a lawful manner with the victims allocated alternative land to ensure that their social, economic and cultural rights are not trampled upon as is the case in Chiredzi.
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The duty of government is to protect its citizens and ensure all their rights are honoured. Sadly, in most land disputes, top government officials have been found on the forefront, disenfranchising hapless citizens with reckless abandon, especially when there is no looming general or by-election.
If President Emmerson Mnangagwa still harbours any hope of being viewed as a democratic leader, and more still a “listening President”, it’s high time he puts a stop to the ongoing human rights violations and allow the country to claim its rightful position among democratic states.
Zimbabwe has, for a long time, hogged the limelight for the wrong reasons and it’s no use denying there is a crisis in the country when there is such glaring evidence.
