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HARARE, Zimbabwe - The government threatened Tuesday to demolish squatter shacks
in what it called an urban beautification campaign after the arrests of about
10,000 street traders in the capital, a stronghold of the opposition.
The opposition accused the ruling ZANU-PF party of trying to provoke confrontations
so it can declare a state of emergency before the tattered state of the economy
leads to riots.
"They are now going for broke," said Paul Themba-Nyathi, spokesman
for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. "It is obvious these
are all punitive measures aimed at urban people who voted against ZANU-PF."
A five-day blitz against street vendors and flea markets already has sparked
clashes between the traders and police, and unrest has been reported elsewhere.
Police Chief Superintendent Oliver Mandipaka said Monday that 9,653 people have
been arrested.
On Tuesday, the government set a June 20 deadline for demolishing unauthorized
buildings in Harare unless the residents appeal and receive a grace period.
The demolitions could evict more than a million urban poor in the middle of
the Zimbabwe winter.
"The attitude of the members of the public as well as some city officials
has led to the point whereby Harare has lost its glow. We are determined to
get it back," government-appointed Mayor Sekesai Makwavara said in a statement.
She said all "illegal structures" would be demolished during the
operation, which was dubbed "Operation Marambatsvina" or "drive
out rubbish."
The crackdown on street traders — who include teachers and other professionals
unable to make a living at their old jobs — is aimed at crushing the black
market for scarce staple goods like maize meal, sugar and gasoline. The government
claims the traders are not licensed and blames them for sabotaging the economy.
Lovemore Madhuku, a university teacher who leads the National Constitutional
Assembly, an umbrella group of organizations seeking radical reform, warned
the demolitions might ignite public anger on a scale unseen since the African
nation gained independence from Britain in 1980.
"I think now people are really going to react," he said.
The cleanup ultimatum revived memories of the 1985 elections when ZANU-PF mobs,
reacting to comments by longtime leader Robert Mugabe, forced thousands of families
suspected of supporting the opposition from their township homes until they
could produce ruling party cards. An unknown number of people were killed while
police refused to intervene.
Township resident Petros Nyoni said the mood in Harare's crowded suburbs was
tense Tuesday, with workers already angry at a police crackdown on the commuter
minibuses that are the mainstay of the transport system.
Hundreds of the taxis have been grounded by lack of fuel at filling stations
while many more have been impounded at roadblocks for allegedly being unfit
to drive.
"There is a very big crisis. People are so desperate they are jumping
through (minibus) windows or onto the roof carriers," he said.
After seven years of unprecedented economic decline, 80 percent of the work
force is unemployed and 4 million of Zimbabwe's 16 million people have emigrated.
Agriculture, once the mainstay, has been hard hit by Mugabe's seizure of 5,000
white-owned farms for redistribution to blacks.
The government last week announced a 45 percent devaluation of the Zimbabwean
currency against the dollar, a ban on luxury imports and heavy subsidies for
agriculture and exporters.
Michael Davies, chairman of the Combined Harare Residents Association, said
more than half of the capital's population of 2 million to 3 million people
live in housing marked for demolition. He said in some cases rents from the
buildings were the only means of survival for elderly owners.