Operation murambatsvina and the politics of street vendors in Zimbabwe

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 301-317

  Musoni, Francis ^a  

^a EMORY UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GOVERNANCE APPROACH; INFORMAL SECTOR; POLITICAL VIOLENCE; TRADE FLOW;

HARARE [ZIMBABWE]; ZIMBABWE;

EID: 77954169569     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2010.485786     Document Type: Article

References (90)

1. The government chose to use the term 'murambatsvina', which means 'one who does not like filth' to emphasise that the operation was a mere urban clean-up exercise targeting illegal structures and activities.
2. S. Feldman, C. Geisler and L. Silberling, 'Moving Targets: Displacement, Impoverishment, and Development', International Social Science Journal, 55, 175 (March 2003), pp. 7-13. Some informal traders did not experience physical dislocation, though they lost jobs and businesses upon which their livelihoods depended.
3. D. Turton, 'Forced Displacement and the Nation State', in J. Robinson, (ed.), Development and Displacement (Oxford, The Open University Press, 2002), p. 56.
4. R. Cohen, and F.M. Deng, Masses in Flight: The Global Crisis of Internal Displacement (Washington DC, Brookings Institution Press, 1998).
5. I. Mudeka, 'The Informal Sector in the Urban History of Southern Rhodesia: The Case of Sakubva Township of Umtali, 1945-65' (MA Thesis, University of Zimbabwe, 2000).
6. The informal sector has also been referred to as the 'hidden economy', 'underground economy', 'parallel economy', or 'second economy'. See T.L. Maliyamkono and M.S.D. Bagachwa, The Second Economy in Tanzania (London, James Currey, 1990).
7. V. Tanzi, (ed) The Underground Economy in the United States and Abroad (Toronto, Lexington Books, 1982).
8. G. Kanyenze and M. Sibanda, 'The Economic Impact of the Clampdown on the Informal Economy, Code-named Operation Restore Order/Murambatsvina' (unpublished paper, Harare, 2005), p. 8.
9. L. Sachikonye, 'The Impact of Operation Murambstvina/Clean Up on the Working People in Zimbabwe' (unpublished paper, Harare, 2005).
10. J. Punungwe, 'Operation Murambatsvina Touches Raw Nerve', The Financial Gazette, Harare, 2-8 June, 2005.
11. Given the difficulties of conducting research on murambatsvina in a politically polarised environment before the installation of Zimbabwe's Government of National Unit in February 2009, I was able to interview mostly people I knew before murambatsvina. Interviews were conducted during the period June to July 2007 and June to July 2008. Pseudonyms have been used to protect the identity of interviewees.
12. K.J. Hart, 'Small-Scale Entrepreneurs in Ghana and Development Planning', Journal of Development Studies, 6, 4 (July 1970), pp. 104-20.
13. See also K.J. Hart, 'Informal Income Opportunities and Urban Employment in Ghana', Journal of Modern African Studies, 11, 1 (March 1973), pp. 61-89.
14. A. Portes, M. Castells, and L. A. Benton (eds), The Informal Economy: Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
15. See also M. Davis, Planet of Slums (New York, Verso, 2006).
16. K. Menon-Sen and G. Bhan, Swept Off the Map: Surviving Eviction and Resettlement in Delhi (New Delhi, Yoda Press, 2008).
17. J. Hardoy and D. Satterthwaite, Squatter Citizen: Life in the Urban Third World (London, Earthscan, 1989).
18. See also A. Mbembe, 'Provisional Notes on the Postcolony', Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 62, 1 (1992), pp. 3-37.
19. R. Davies, The Informal Sector: A Solution to Unemployment? (Gweru, Mambo Press, 1978).
20. A. Kamete, Governing the Poor in Harare, Zimbabwe: Shifting Perceptions and Changing Responses (Nordiska Africainstitutet, Research Report No. 122, 2002), pp. 13-14.
21. R. Mupedziswa and P. Gumbo, Structural Adjustment and Women Informal Traders in Harare, Zimbabwe (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Research Report No. 106, 1998).
22. J. Cross, Informal Politics: Street Vendors and the State in Mexico City (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1998).
23. C. Hill, The Collected Essays of Christopher Hill (Sussex, Harvester Press, 1985).
24. E.J. Hobsbawm, Primitive Rebels: Studies in Archaic Forms of Social Movement in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1978).
25. E.P. Thompson, The Poverty of Theory and Other Essays (London, Merlin Press, 1979).
26. D. Chakrabarty, 'Subaltern Studies and Postcolonial Historiography', Nepantla: Views from South, 1, 1(2000),p.17.
27. R. Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1983).
28. Chakrabarty, 'Subaltern Studies and Post-colonial Historiography', p. 17.
29. P. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed: Reflections on Popular Politics in Most of the World (New York, Columbia University Press, 2004).
30. J.M. Nelson, Access to Power: Politics and the Urban Poor in Developing Nations (Princeton NJ, Princeton University Press, l979).
31. J.C. Scott, The Moral Economy of the Peasant: Rebellion and Subsistence in Southeast Asia (New Haven, CT, Yale University Press, 1976).
32. J.C. Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (New Haven CT, Yale University Press, 1985).
33. D.S. Moore, 'Subaltern Struggles and the Politics of Place: Remapping Resistance in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands', Cultural Anthropology, 13, 3 (August 1998), p. 350.
34. R. Mberi, 'Evictees' Meekness Stuns the World', The Financial Gazette (Harare, 9-15 June 2005).
35. For more details about other clean-up projects in Zimbabwe see D. Potts, 'City Life in Zimbabwe at a Time of Fearand Loathing: Urban Planning, Urban Poverty and Operation Murambatsvina', in M. Murray and G. Myers (eds), Cities in Contemporary Africa (New York, Pelgrave, 2007), pp. 265-88.
36. S. Bracking, 'Development Denied: Autocratic Militarism in Post-Election Zimbabwe', Review of African Political Economy, 104/105 (2005), pp. 341-57.
37. Sachikonye, 'The Impact of Operation Murambatsvina'.
38. Solidarity Peace Trust, 'Meltdown': Murambatsvina, One Year On' (Research Report, Harare, 2006).
39. See also Action Aid International in Collaboration with Combined Harare Residents Association, 'A Study on the Impact of Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order in 26 Wards of Harare High Density Housing Areas' (Harare, Survey Report, 2005).
40. D. Potts, '"Restoring Order"? Operation Murambatsvina and the Urban Crisis in Zimbabwe', Journal of Southern African Studies, 32, 2 (June 2002), pp. 273-91.
41. The Saturday Herald (Harare, 28 May 2005).
42. See also, A.K. Tibaijuka, 'Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe to Assess the Scope and Impact Of Operation Murambatsvina by the UN Special Envoy on Human Settlements Issues in Zimbabwe' (July 2005).
43. Government of Zimbabwe, 'Response by Government of Zimbabwe to the Report by the UN Special Envoy on Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order' (Harare, August 2005).
44. D. Potts, 'City Life in Zimbabwe at a Time of Fear and Loathing: Urban Planning, Urban Poverty and Operation Murambatsvina'.
45. A.Y. Kamete, 'Planning Versus Youth: Stamping Out Spatial Unruliness in Harare', in Geoforum, 39, (2008), pp. 1,721-33.
46. See also Kamete, 'Cold-Hearted, Negligent and Spineless? Planning, Planners and the (R)Ejection of "Filth" in Urban Zimbabwe', in International Planning Studies, 12, 2 (May 2007), pp. 153-71.
47. Tibaijuka, 'Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe', p. 20-1.
48. Ibid., p. 21
49. Sachikonye, 'The Impact of Operation Murambatsvina'.
50. M. Bratton, and E. Masunungure, 'Popular Reactions to State Repression: Operation Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe', African Affairs, 106, 422 (September 2006), pp. 21-45.
51. A. Sachikonye, 'The Impact of Operation Murambatsvina'.
52. Kanyenze and Sibanda, 'The Economic Impact of the Clampdown on the Informal Economy, Code-named Operation Restore Order/Murambatsvina'.
53. Bracking, 'Development Denied', p. 341.
54. Government of Zimbabwe, 'Response by Government of Zimbabwe to the Report by the UN Special Envoy on Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order'. See also Sachikonye, 'The Impact of Operation Murambatsvina/Clean Up on the Working People in Zimbabwe'.
55. Action Aid International in Collaboration with Combined Harare Residents Association, 'A Study on the Impact of Operation Murambatsvina/Restore Order in 26 Wards of Harare High Density Housing Areas'.
56. Tibaijuka, 'Report of the Fact-Finding Mission to Zimbabwe'.
57. Ibid., p. 35.
58. Solidarity Peace Trust, 'Meltdown': Murambatsvina, One Year On' (Research Report, Harare, 2006); Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, 'Political Violence Report' June 2005.
59. Bratton and Masunungure, 'Popular Reactions to State Repression: Operation Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe', p. 44.
60. K. Manganga, 'Street Vending in Post-Operation Murambatsvina Harare: The Case of Female Vendors at Machipisa, Highfield Township' (unpublished paper, Cape Town, 2007).
61. See 'Vital to Grasp Legal Framework for Urban Planning', The Sunday Mail (Harare), 29 May 2005.
62. Horrified Groups Petition SA, AU', The Financial Gazette (Harare), 30 June-6 July 2005. Organisations which signed the petition include the Human Rights NGO Forum, the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, National Association of Non- Governmental Organizations, Christians Together for Justice And Peace, Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops' Conference, the Solidarity Peace Trust, Combined Harare Residents Association and Women's Coalition.
63. UN Press Release, 'UN Experts Deplore Zimbabwe's Campaign of Forced Eviction' (24 June 2005).
64. BBC Sport News, 'Mugabe Faces Cricket Tour Threat' 2 July 2005.
65. CBBC, 'Calls to Put Pressure on Zimbabwe', 24 June 2005.
66. Both 'Garikai' - a Shona word - and 'Hlalani Kuhle' - a Ndebele phrase - literally mean 'live well'.
67. M. Luebker, 'Decent Work and Informal Employment: A Survey of Workers in Glen View, Harare' (ILO, Integration Working Paper No. 91, July 2008), p. 25.
68. Interview with Tobaiwa, Makomva Business Centre, Harare, 20 July 2008. A self-confessed MDC activist who ran a carpentry shop at Makomva from 1998 to 2005, Tobaiwa says he survived a serious attack by ZANU-PF youths in Zvishavane when he went there to campaign for an MDC candidate who later flew to the United Kingdom in 2000. During my interview with him, he showed me some huge scars on his back and lower abdomen which he allegedly sustained from the burning plastic his assailants used to assault him.
69. T. Yoshikuni, African Urban Experiences in Colonial Zimbabwe: A Social History of Harare before 1925 (Harare, Weaver Press, 2007).
70. Focus Group Discussion led by Obert Mlambo, Makomva, 24 February 2009.
71. N.P. Hall, 'Self-Reliance in Practice: A Study of Burial Societies in Harare, Zimbabwe', in Journal of Social Development in Africa, 2, 1 (1987), pp. 49-71.
72. maRounds is derived from the idea of rotation, and means 'making rounds'.
73. Focus Group Discussion led by Obert Mlambo, Makomva, 24 February 2009.
74. Yoshikuni, African Urban Experiences in Colonial Zimbabwe, p. 57.
75. Kamete, Governing the Poor in Harare, Zimbabwe. See also The Financial Gazette (Harare), 24 May 2001.
76. An unnamed top official of the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimonline, 28 May 2005.
77. An unnamed woman, Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum (Research Report, Harare, June 2005).
78. The Financial Gazette (Harare), 16-22 June 2005.
79. A. Kamete, 'The Return of the Jettisoned: ZANU-PF's Crack at 'Re-Urbanising' in Harare', Journal of Southern African Studies, 32, 2 (June 2006), pp. 255-71.
80. Interview with Praise, Makomva, 10 August 2007. 'Border Gezi' refers to the youth who underwent the National Youth Training Programme initiated by a late ZANU-PF official and first Minister of Youth, Border Gezi. It is believed that during murambatsvina the police recruited graduates of the National Youth Training Programme to assist with the demolition of buildings. The victims dubbed murambatsvina a manufactured 'tsunami' after the heavy floods which swept across parts of the Asia-pacific region destroying many lives and property a few months before the Harare authorities embarked on this project.
81. A. Brener and B. Schurz, 'Anti-Technologies of Resistance', available at http:subsol.c3.hu/subsol_2contributors/brenertext,html (retrieved on 8 December 2007).
82. Informal Conversation with Sam Makomva, 10 June 2007.
83. Interview with Lydia, Makomva, 24 July 2007.
84. Interview with Ticha, Makomva, 10 June 2007. ZRP stands for Zimbabwe Republic Police.
85. Interview with Praise, Makomva, 10 August 2007.
86. D. Potts, 'Displacement and Livelihoods: The Longer-term Impact of Operation Murambstvina', in M. Vambe, Zimbabwe: The Hidden Dimension of Operation Murambatsvina (Pretoria, Africa Institute of South Africa, 2008).
87. Interview with Charles, Makomva, 23 July 2007.
88. Interview with Chirandu, Makomva, 16 June 2007.
89. Interview with Romeo, Makomva, 23 July 2007.
90. Interview with Chengeto, Makomva, 23 July 2007.