Porta Farm residents condemn eviction order

Some residents of Porta Farm, an informal settlement on the outskirts of Zimbabwe's capital, Harare, have threatened to defy a government order to move, saying they have nowhere else to stay. The government had given the 10,000-strong community until 15 August to move, to make way for the construction of a sewerage plant. When IRIN visited this week, some people were still packing their belongings, heading off to stay with relatives. Others, however, vowed to stay put in a settlement which has been under threat throughout its existence. "We were shocked by the government's move to evict us and build a sewage system here ... We've been here for 14 years," community leader Prince Nyathi told IRIN. Minister of Local Government Ignatius Chombo had promised that the settlers would be re-located to a government farm. But no transport has as yet arrived, and most of the people IRIN spoke to were pessimistic that there would be any facilities at the new location. "How can the government take us to a land where there is no toilets and water?" asked one resident, who said he intended to resist eviction. Tendai Maroto feared that her two children might fail to take their final exanimations in October if they were resettled. "My children registered to write their examinations here, now where will they write the exams from?" Moroto asked as she packed her belongings. Porta Farm, a 30-minute drive from the Harare city centre, has been home to some of Zimbabwe's poorest and most vulnerable citizens since 1991. It was meant to have been a temporary settlement to accommodate the homeless cleared out of the capital when Queen Elizabeth II visited to open the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting. Designated a "temporary holding camp", it has retained an air of impermanence, with lack of official recognition compounding the poverty. Narrow dirt lanes run between homes made from mud brick and plastic sheeting. The population has just three NGO-run pre-schools, and a log-built primary and secondary school, with no health facilities or electricity. What money there is in the community comes mainly from illegal fishing in the nearby reservoir and the sale of firewood. Some of the residents used to find occasional work on the commercial farms in the area, but those opportunities have dwindled with land redistribution, where a new class of resettled farmers are themselves struggling to make a success of their plots. Peter James, aged 60, said the government's eviction order would worsen the plight of Porta Farm's residents. "The majority of us have been employed in businesses around Lake Chivero. The unemployed ones were surviving on fishing, so moving us will be taking away our lifeline." Secretary of the residents committee, Lister Makoni, said the authorities were treating them as outlaws, after threatening that the army and police would be used if the community failed to vacate the farm by last Sunday. "Our argument is that we cannot move from here into the wilderness, until and unless the government gives us a credible promise that we are going to find the relevant infrastructure that we have been using here," said Makoni.