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Zimbabwe's "Operation Restore Order:" A summary
August 1, 2005
"OPERATION RESTORE ORDER"
In business has been bad as countless people’s livelihoods (the opposition party Movement for Democratic Change estimates somewhere around 2 million affected) continue to be destroyed by the government’s ongoing “Operation Restore Order.” In an attempt to clean up the state of informal trade, the Zimbabwean government has mounted a country-wide blitzkrieg on the flea markets and other businesses, arresting 17,000 people, displacing 700,000—more than 220,000 of which are children—in the process. The flea markets—which are a major source of goods ranging from basic commodities and electronics to fuel and foreign currency—have housed a thriving black market as of late due to the 100% increase in the price of food, bare shelves in stores, and many other factors entangled in the mire that is Zimbabwe’s worst economic recession in years.
As the police forces tore through flea markets, demolishing stalls and structures, they were indiscriminant
in their destruction, as many of the affected vendors in these markets are legitimate. According to minister
of Local Government and Urban Development, Dr. Ignatius Chombo, the blitz was predicated on the blurring between the informal and formal sectors of business. After about 2 months of madness, the U.N. has formally issued a report confirming and condemning the mayhem that has been in and out of the news throughout the duration of the sweeps. Since the report published on July 22 by Anna Tibaijuka, special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, detailing the atrocities, the Zimbabwean government has made claims to have stopped all demolition and displacement.
Tibaijuka’s colleague, U.N. Human Rights chief Louise Arbour repeated her calls to end the destruction.
Furthermore she called for “those responsible for this extremely misguided initiative to be held to account, for reparations to be paid to the victims and for the government to facilitate the deployment of humanitarian
assistance at the earliest opportunity.”
Despite the U.N.’s firm, albeit belated, stance on the situation, a U.N. worker stationed in said Monday that
it heard reports of the aforementioned activities continuing in the East of the country.
MUSIC INDUSTRY SUFFERS UNDER SWEEPS
The music industry was particularly hard hit by the recent crackdowns is the. The flea markets served as a
fundamental distribution point for many record labels. Furthermore, due to the public’s familiarity with
flea markets and indifference towards conventional music stores, the record industry in has become dependent upon these informal methods of distribution, as they generate the majority of the revenue. Metro Studios, one of the leading music distribution outfits in Harare , experienced a drastic 70% decline in operations as a result of the restoration of order. For the musicians who depend on royalties for their livelihoods, things look bleak.
CHINESE CONNECTION
Some merchants cite the government’s courtship with the Chinese as a reason for the clean up. They feel that the informal markets are being eradicated not for the greater public good, but at the behest of newly arrived Chinese merchants seeking to do business in , without secondhand dealers undercutting their cheaply imported goods. A feeling of upset has solidified surrounding the Chinese theory. “If they want to give these areas to the Chinese they should have allocated us somewhere else rather than chasing us away like rats,” remarked Lovemore Motsi, a 24 year old flea market vendor.
“How can we violently remove Zimbabweans from our flea markets to make way for the Chinese?” he asked. “The majority of Zimbabweans depend on informal trade to feed, clothe and educate their families.”
Suspicion around the Chinese theory is not lessened by Mugabe’s recent visit to Beijing , where he won financial and diplomatic support from the Chinese government. The Chinese leader, Jintao Hu signed a deal on economic and technological cooperation with the Zimbabwean president, though it remains unknown what the deal specifically called for. This has been a crowning example of—what Mugabe calls his “Look East” policy—the increasingly friendly relationship that has been transpiring between the Zimbabwean and Chinese governments ever since severed ties with the World Bank and the IMF in 1999.
POLITICAL PAYBACK
Another theory cites political revenge as a motive for “Operation Restore Order.” The fact that the people living and working in these urban conditions that are now being demolished overwhelming voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change party in the March 31st elections is more than a coincidence to the Broad Alliance, a coalition made up of the MDC, the National Constitutional Assembly, the Crisis Coalition, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and other pro-democracy groups.
As the cries for aid sound from the MDC and the U.N. is pressuring the government to stop the destruction
immediately and provide reparations and welfare for those affected, according to the Public Service, Labor and Social Welfare Secretary Lancaster Museka, Zimbabwe would not formally ask the U.N. World Food Program for assistance. There have been recent developments suggesting that in the Masvingo and Matabeleland South provinces, in the respective districts of Mwenezi and Insiza, MDC supporters have been denied food at area grain depots.
EFFICIENCY FIRST
The government insists that all the sweeps and demolition have been to rid the country of the chaotic nature of an unregulated market and to clear up the blurred distinctions between informal and formal sectors of business. “An economy can not be run on an informal sector, but it is run by a formal sector with the informal sector offering a supporting role. The formal sector provides the bulk of the revenue that also trickles down to the informal sector, whilst the informal sector is levied according to its earnings, and in so doing also contributes to the economy. This relationship had become blurred and we are correcting it,” explained Dr. Chombo.
The demolitions have badly dammaged the municipalities where they took place. The second largest city Bulawayo, has been hit hard by the “Operation Restore Order.” Its city council says it will lose a total of $756 million (ZWD) if the exiled vendors are not allowed to return. Apart from the businesses, people’s homes are also the target of “Restore Order.” People have been given deadlines by the government, after which their illegal homes, without electricity, sewage or paved roads, will be torn down. The situation has reached a point where it has been labeled ’s “own Darfur Crisis” by the Zimbabwe Standard of Harare. The numbers originally reported of displaced in Harare alone was equal to that of the Darfur Crisis -- estimated at about one million. The U.N. confirms about 700,000 thousand throughout the country.
“What if you build a multi-story building on top of a sewer line and you are asked to demolish it? I think we
should adhere to the operations of our police, the dictates of our local authority by-laws. Our people should
obey the law they should check with the relevant office near them, we have district offices and they will tell
them where to build,” said Dr. Chombo.
Meanwhile, the refugees, now busy following applicable laws, have no means by which to survive. “The city will be flooded with prostitutes and thieves because people have no jobs but need money,” Motsi predicted.
Further reading:
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-zimbabwe.html?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200507220761.html
http://www.sadocc.at/news/2005/2005-138.shtml
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/news/2005/May/Thursday26/2412.html
Story contributed by Zev Frank for Afropop Worldwide
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