WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-04-11 Time: 05:00:01 Posted By: News Poster
By Caiphas Chimhete
UNRUFFLED by wiggling worms and tadpoles, Rosemary Ndawana plunges her tin into the shallow well to fetch water for drinking and other household chores. Less than 10 metres away, one of her neighbours is having a bath in a grass toilet-cum-bathroom enclosure.
“We are surviving by the grace of God,” said the 34-year-old mother of three. “We know some effluent might be seeping into this well but we don’t have any choice.”
Only one borehole is supplying water to Hopley Farm, some 15 km south of Harare, where Ndawana’s family and 5 000 other households were “resettled” after their homes were demolished by government in May 2005 under Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order).
At times Unicef provides clean water to a mobile clinic and a local crèche in an effort to avoid the outbreak of water-borne diseases.
There has not been much government-assisted development since the families were resettled at Hopley Farm.
Some of the temporary structures built by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and President Robert Mugabe’s government under Operation Garikai are already collapsing.
Most of the families still cannot access running water or health facilities. They queue for long hours to get medication at the only mobile clinic.
Some families have built Blair toilets but most residents prefer to use the “bush system” for fear that the poorly built mud-brick toilets would collapse on them.
The tall green grass around the compound is always plastered with menacing green flies, hunting for any rotting matter to feed on.
“The government has condemned us to death here, you can see for yourself,” said health promoter Eunah Maruta. “It is a miracle that few people died of cholera last year.”
Maruta, who works at the local mobile clinic at Hopley, said scores of people were dying of HIV/Aids-related diseases in the compound.
Dysentery, tuberculosis, diarrhoea and sexually transmitted diseases such syphilis are rampant at Hopley where 90% of the residents are very poor, said Maruta.
“We are worried because of the number of sexually-transmitted infections (STIs) that are being treated at the local clinic. Some of the infected would be as young as 15 years,” she said.
She said children as young as 10 were already sexually active because most of them do not go to school and spend their time indulging in delinquent activities.
Teenage girls share bedrooms with their brothers, cousins and other relatives because of the shortage of accommodation.
Hopley Residents Association chairlady Felistus Chinyuku bemoaned the future of children at the compound, which has virtually turned into a squatter camp, where vices such as prostitution, rape and muggings are common.
“The future of our children is at stake,” said Chinyuku. “They don’t go to school and they spend most of their time engaged in all sorts of immoral behaviour.”
Some of the rape cases go unreported to the police for fear of victimisation, especially if the perpetrators have close links with Zanu PF officials residing at the compound.
Many women have been raped in silence while young girls are abused by the “haves” of Hopley for food — some just for a loaf of bread.
An undertaker, Samson Kazembe (34) last week started a school at the compound to accommodate children who are not attending formal schools.
Although recruitment is still in the process Rising Star School which conducts lessons under a shade of a tree has 351 pupils from the Grade Zero to Grade VII.
“Most of these children don’t have birth certificates while others cannot afford fees charged by other schools,” said Kazembe, a former untrained school teacher, who doubles as the headmaster of the school.
The pupils do not have books, pencils or uniforms, he said, appealing to well-wishers to donate in cash or kind for the future of the pupils.
When The Standard news crew visited the compound on Wednesday morning scores of residents were already downing bottled beer and the popular opaque beer (Scud) at the many shebeens at the compound.
Some were dancing the morning away to the loud music. “We have nothing to do that is why we are here,” said Abel Mutendi. “If I had something to do, I would not be here.”
Most of the residents make a living out of vending. Some sell vegetables and firewood while others sell groceries in wooden tuckshops.
However, residents are unhappy that government appears to have abandoned them since “dumping” them there almost five years ago.
Maxwell Joe, the secretary of the residents association said they were informed by officials from the Ministry of Local Government late last year that government was no longer able to build houses for them.
“But the ministry wants everyone with a stand to pay US$50 per year and US$35 per month for those with two-roomed structures.”
He said most of the residents could not afford the levy demanded by the ministry.
Efforts to get comment from Minister of National Housing Fidelis Mhashu were fruitless last week as he was said to be out of the country on business.
However, a senior official in Mhashu’s ministry, which has taken over the Garikai project from the Ministry of Local Government, said government was still committed to finding shelter for the victims of Operation Murambatsvina.
“It (programme) has been stalled briefly because of logistical problems,” said the official who requested anonymity. “There is still some hand-over-take-over exercise that has to be done.”
After the destruction of people’s homes, Mugabe’s government embarked on Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, a programme intended to provide housing and premises for small business for the affected people.
But nearly five years on, most of the structures built countrywide remain incomplete and some land is un-serviced.
The United Nations estimated that 700 000 people across the country lost their homes, their livelihoods or both as a result of Operation Murambatsvina, which was condemned internationally.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 27 March 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201003291070.html?viewall=1