A LOCAL daily paper carried a story to the effect that about 600 families from Chief Charumbira area in Masvingo are going to be displaced because Masvingo Rural District Council has entered into an deal to pave way for a Chinese investor seeking to set up a cement processing plant.
By Cleto Manjova
The paper reports that the local authority has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese company.
While everyone would want to embrace any form of genuine foreign investment in the country at the moment, it is imperative that the State and all its branches ensure that fundamental rights are not violated in the name of investment. While economic development is critical, it is no more important that the pursuit of social justice.
Furthermore, while the government is indeed under pressure to deliver on its promises as espoused in its ambitious ZimAsset economic blueprint, it is important to invoke the humanitarian imperative and meet international and regional standards and principles guiding its conduct and operations.
The critical point in this regard is to avoid another episode of mass displacement that has become part and parcel of the poor in Zimbabwe for more than a decade. As is often the case when the interests of powerful economic actors clash with those of the poor, the latter usually come out the losers.
Six hundred is the figure the local daily has given and it’s followed by a qualification that the families could even be more. It is probable that the figure of 600 has been used to take it closer to the meagre 200 villagers who are expected to benefit by way of employment in the Chinese company whose name has already been on the lips of most Zimbabweans before they even penned the deal, because its name is Xhing Xhong — a phrase that has been used by literally every Zimbabwean to mean sub-standard/low quality Chinese products.
If the meaning of the phrase in everyday life is anything to go by in foretelling the output of this so-called “mega deal”as we are made to believe, one is bound to be sceptical about the quality of the cement that the company will be manufacturing, for the local market, of course, as is the norm with the rising economic giant which has mastered how to produce market-specific products.
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Xhing Xhong aside, at least they already have that one in the bag because they have put pen to paper and who knows dear reader, they might be at Chevron Hotel in Masvingo as you read this piece. I don’t hate the Chinese because they don’t go where they are not invited, my issue here is purely humanitarian. Zimbabwe has since the dawn of a new millennium faced internal displacement and the response strategies have never been impressive. The long forgotten Churu Farm, the land reform-induced internal displacements, last year’s events at Manzou in Mazowe shows how a durable solution remains a pipe dream and it’s still a problem.
It’s exactly a decade after Operation Murambatsvina, critics have said the remedy to Murambatsvina ills, Garikai, was a high-sounding nothing. The United Nations said about 700 000 were displaced. Operation Garikai/Hlalani Kuhle, which was meant to be the solution to Murambatsvina was last reported to have constructed 4 000 houses and must have ended there despite its good intentions. Allegations of the cancer of corruption and administrative bungling in the allocation of the few houses are well recorded.
Flooding hit the basin of Tokwe-Murkosi Dam in 2014. The dam has been under construction since 1998, at least it’s not being constructed by Xhing Xhong so hopefully the wall will be strong enough to avoid further danger in future. Again my issue on this case is not about the investment, but the victims and the failure by the State to handle displacement.
Poor families from Tokwe Murkosi had to be driven out of the dam basin by “floods”. Yes, floods in quotes because from the interviews conducted by one human rights organisation, the victims indicated the government took it as an opportunity to move the people after a long period of resistance. They wanted compensation first, truly they were very right, how could they relocate without the promised compensation?
So the flooding provided an opportunity to “save” them and take them to the Promised Land in Nuanetsi Range. That is why their request for having the flood gates opened reportedly fell on deaf ears.
Now a similar displacement is brewing, but this one — we have been told — is well-planned and 200 jobs are the price. Really out of two million jobs promised?
But as Zimbabwe is going on with its business of wanton displacement of poor citizens, it is in violation of clearly set international standards. In 1992, then UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali appointed Francis Deng, as his Representative on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). In 1998, following years of collaboration with a team of international legal scholars and consultation with non-governmental, regional and international organisations, Deng presented the UN system with the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. Even though they are not legally binding, they give clear direction on how the State should work with other actors to deal with issues of internal displacement.
Of interest here is principle seven, which among other things stipulates that: Prior to any decision requiring the displacement of persons, the authorities concerned shall ensure that all feasible alternatives are explored in order to avoid displacement altogether. Where no alternatives exist, all measures shall be taken to minimise displacement and its adverse effects.
Zimbabwe was among the very first countries to demonstrate commitment in as far as IDP law is concerned by signing the Kampala Convention on protection and assistance of internally displaced persons adopted by the African Union in 2009.
The Convention, which again among other issues formally “recognise the inherent rights of internally displaced persons as set out in” the UN Guiding Principles stated above and uses a similar structure to lay out the rights of IDPs before, during and after displacement, was ratified by Zimbabwe in 2013.
Without trying to go into the legal jargon and interpretation of the UN principles, it is imperative that Masvingo Rural District Council, before they repeat another mistake and create an unnecessary humanitarian crisis, should try and be guided by such basic recommendations in line with international best practices.
My worry though, is some of the authorities are alien to their own laws, let alone international guidelines, but we continue to urge them.
Instead of reporting in the press that all is set and the investor can move in anytime, it is critical to ensure that the affected families are compensated and relocated to alternative resettlement.
In a show of how ill-prepared council is, the proposed relocation site is yet to be identified.
The same authorities who are failing to address the unending displacement of the Tokwe Murkosi victims are about to repeat the same.
If council is sincere in amicably paving way for development by displacing these poor families, they have to ensure a smooth relocation process to avoid shock and general humanitarian disaster.
However, it is the tone of excitement at striking an investment deal by the chief executive officer quoted by the newspaper, that is worrying. He seems to be focused on the benefits of the deal forgetting a basic principle of first things first. He seems to be downplaying the humanitarian challenges that come with such displacement at a time when someone would expect Masvingo province to be a torch-bearer in learning from errors of omission and commission in as far as internal displacement is concerned.
The Tokwe-Murkosi flooding disaster of 2014, whose solution is yet to come, should have been a good lesson. It seems people never learn!
Council has tried to be economic with the total number to be affected, which is something that doesn’t help anyone because it complicates things.
How can a whole council sign a memorandum of understanding for such a big project without carrying out all the impact assessments, including ascertaining how many people are to be affected, even by age groups to cater for the rights of most vulnerable groups like children and those living with disabilities.
If the investment deal is in sincerity, simple business ethics tell us that companies should meet their obligations such as compensating families instead of trying to tell them how a bag of cement will be cheaper.
Of course, it will be cheaper for those in the area and not someone in a yet-to-be-identified place very far from the investment site.
Trying to tell the families about how cement dealers in the province will benefit does not address their impending problem of displacement.
Michael Cerna, a sociologist and researcher with the World Bank makes the case that victims of forced displacement who move from their habitat and have their lifestyle disrupted are bound to be poorer in their new settlements.
In all that, key factors to minimum standards of life such as social services, shelter, livelihoods and food security are the most affected. The local authority does not mention how they seek to manage this despite indicating that all is set for the investor to move in. The villagers have not known any other home and they need proper shock management, considering this is not a natural disaster like flooding or earthquake. One would expect better levels of humanitarianism.
The country has signed and ratified the Kampala Convention. It is high time the State started expediting the domestication of legal frameworks and international best practices to improve its approach in responding to internal displacement.
The Masvingo authorities should act to avert a humanitarian crisis. Critical to the State is ensuring that the humanitarian space in the province has no obstacles.
Considering that the last agricultural season was not a good one for these families, the State will find it very difficult, given its current financial situation, to address this humanitarian emergency. That can be made possible by sharing accurate and detailed information about the affected.
The writer is a development practitioner currently Studying MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies Management at the London School of Economics. He can be contacted on [email protected]
