* REPORT : 2

Porta-Farm - The Tragedy

WHAT DO WE DO WHEN NEGOTIATIONS FAIL?

IS THERE ANY POINT IN TRYING TO NEGOTIATE WITH A DICTATORIAL STATE?

PORTA FARM-THE TRAGEDY

The Porta Farm community was established as a result of evictions that were aimed at clearing Harare of ‘undesirables’ before the Common Wealth Head of State meeting in 1992. The eviction operation was carried out by the Ministry of Local Government and National Housing as well as the City of Harare. Families were evicted from Epworth and parts of Mbare. Pre-dawn raids were carried out and in the aftermath people lost property worth millions. Government’s immediate solution was to relocate some 600+-families who could prove that they were ‘gainfully’[1] employed in Harare to a holding camp in Dzivarasekwa, some 10 km south of Harare. The rest would be repatriated back to their rural homes. The logic then was if you could not prove you were gainfully employed you had no business being in Harare. This relocation was always meant as a temporary solution. Most of the families who had been ferried to their rural homes came back after a few months and re-established themselves in Porta Farm

Over the years Porta Farm has developed into a vibrant community, with a school a clinic several churches and even police post. The community quickly integrated themselves into the local economy with most being employed as casual workers in the neighbouring farms as well as retailing fish from the two lakes adjoining the farm. As they would have it life was good. Their kids were going to school, there was a clinic and a doctor visited once a week.

When a consortium of Local Business people bought a horticultural farm adjacent to the farm and subsequently came up with a Local Subject plan Porta farm people were overjoyed. The plan had designated their village as a farming village and in their eyes this meant that they would be no need for re-location. Dialogue on Shelter together with the five saving schemes from Porta Farm called a meeting to discuss the subject plan. The plan touched three separate local authorities, Harare City Council by virtue of them being the legal owners of Porta Farm, the Zvimba Rural District Council as the planning Authority and the Ministry of Local Government and National Housing as the parent Ministry. The idea was to get a consensus that the Porta Farm Community would stay and that they could indeed begin to develop permanent housing. At the last minute the Town Clerk of Harare issued a directive to her staff ‘banning them from attending the meeting. However both the Ministry of Local Government and Zvimba Rural District Council were of the opinion that Porta Farm could be regularised.

It therefore came as a surprise to Porta farm residents when the rumours of an impending eviction started to circulate in late July early August. Around the same time a high handed delegation that included the Minister of Local Government and National Housing, and the newly appointed Governor of Harare visited Porta Farm. At this rally, the Porta Farm community was told the time to ask questions was up. They were told they had two weeks to vacate the farm. Alternative land would be made available for them but no one was allowed to ask where this would be. Mr Chadambuka a federation member and councillor under the Zvimba Rural District Council claims he was told to say his ‘good-byes to his people as they would be under some other jurisdiction and not his. This happened on a Friday.

The Harare federation leadership set over the weekend and had a meeting with all Porta Farm residents to try and find a solution. What was evident was how divided the community was. Over the past 12 years there have been different waves of settlers. The ‘original’ settlers meaning those who came with the first evictions felt they were owed more by government. There was also lot of anger and resentment. The community was divided into those who felt they should resuscitate a court injunction that compelled government to provide an acceptable alternative to the Porta Farm Community and those who felt they could not win against government. Government had announced that they would start an exercise to establish how many families were in Porta Farm. The federation felt that there was probably a middle ground where both parties could negotiate an acceptable resolution. The federation had last done an enumeration in Porta Farm in November 2003 and they felt the first step would be for the community to have control over the compilation of data as to how many families were in Porta. They offered the November statistics as a starting point. However increasing paranoia on the part of government meant any involvement of ‘NGO’ was viewed suspiciously. Staff from an NGO IPPA which had been assisting the Porta community with educational supplies was threatened. A member of Amnesty International was taken in and held for three days without trial. All NGO’s working in Porta including Dialogue on Shelter were therefore quite scared and felt very helpless[2]

Over the next week all hope of negotiations were thrown out as the newly established office of the governor[3] took over and started a head count with the aid of the police, army and youth militia. Families were only counted if they could identify a structure that they owned. Thus third divisive dimension was introduced. With no information as to the land available structure owners would not allow their tenants to register fearing they might end up with no land. Families with multiple households could only register the ‘principal’ unit. The Harare leadership of the federation maintained an incognito presence in Porta and some point tried to negotiate with the registration team that all Savings Scheme members be relocated together. However the Government officials in charge of the exercise would not hear of it. Clandestine meetings between federation groups in the are a total of six with a membership of over 600 families agreed that there was no point in resisting the evictions as they would surely loose, rather it was more strategic to negotiate the terms of the evictions of major concern were the following:-

Education for children
Water and Sanitation
Health facilities
Housing and security of tenure
Employment
Programmes for the elderly destitute and people living with or affected by HIV/AIDS

By the end of the first week a window of opportunity arose when I gathered the courage to call the Ministry of Local Government’s Director of Housing who coincidentally at that time was at one of the farms they intended to relocate people to. He invited Dialogue on Shelter and the Federation to attend a meeting of a task force discussing the logistics of the eviction. We had very little time to communicate with the Porta Farm Community so we went ahead with one of Harare’s Federation leadership

As a strategy we sneaked unnoticed into the Caledonia Farm they were looking at as a possible location site. Incidentally a few years back the Harare Federation had actually looked at this farm with the intention of negotiating with its then commercial farmer to buy it. The farm Caledonia is located just 10 km outside of Harare and next to Tafara and Mabvuku High density. In our analysis the location was good. However as with most North-Easterly located settlements of Harare water and sewer would be a huge problem. Harare just does not have the capacity to pump water to suburbs located north of the current reservoirs… they call these dry areas. In recent months water has become such a problem for Mabvuku and Tafara that on average residents only have water six hours a day. Most of Mabvuku and Tafara’s sewer is reticulated through two ponds that have been operating at more than 25% above capacity for the past ten years. Thus for Caledonia to work alternatives to Water and Sewer would have to be found.

We discovered quick enough into the meeting with the ‘Interim Committee on Porta Farm’ that we were there because we were an NGO. The chair of the committee had us mistaken for these NGO that would come up with tents and temporary toilets for the poor of Porta Farm. We were upfront and told them that any assistance we could render would largely be depended upon the priorities of the Porta Farm Community who we were not represented who we would want to be part of these meetings. We had a strange ally in the Army and Police who had been brought to provide logistical support for the move. In this meeting they told the Ministry of Local Government and Housing that they would not be party to a process that would result in the Government being ridiculed for not caring for all its citizens. We requested that the following be done

· Inform the Minister that his two week deadline was not practical more time was needed to plan the relocation properly and also get the community’s consensus as well as

· Those future meetings of the ‘Interim Committee on Porta Farm’ include Porta Farm residents. We insisted that the next meeting should include Porta Farm’s Development Committee who we had worked with before. We took it upon ourselves to inform this committee and also take them to Caledonia so that they were informed when they came to the next meeting

· That plots at Caledonia be tuck –surveyed so that when Porta residents were moved they would be given a specific letter of allocation relating to a specific plot.

In the following week we managed to take Porta Farm Development Committee to Caledonia and they met with the leadership of the ‘War veterans ‘that has occupied the farm. The farm had over 2000 plots and thus it would be possible for the whole Porta Farm community to move here. The Porta Farm community’s position was that given a choice they would not want to move as they had built a lot of infrastructure at Porta. They however acknowledged they would not be given this choice and the alternative was to be given time to move and also ensure that they would have security of tenure this time. On their part the ‘War Veterans ‘who occupied the farm were quite happy for the Porta Farm Community to come and share the farm with them. They had done a lot already and they saw this as an opportunity to get Government to move on approvals of layouts they had been waiting for.

In the meeting we had with Government despite our request to the Development Committee for the discussions to centre on future plans the Development Committee was understandably angry at Government and basically told the meeting they would not move without a fight. We were back where we started. They said they had a high court order that compelled Government and the City Council to provide an acceptable alternative

At Caledonia politics was playing its on story. All farms occupied after the 2000 farm invasions are being run by committees of ‘war veterans’ who are to all intents and purposes law unto themselves. While the land has become state land the Ministry of Local Government has very little say…infact most government officers are scared of war veterans. There was an added complication in that there are two committees at Caledonia or Tongoville as it is now called. Government had been negotiating with one Committee while the other led by a faction leadership was not happy to have the Porta Farm community move. This would mean only 200 families could be moved to Caledonia.

In the following week we were left out of the meetings at the Minisry. We were told that the Minister had refused to give the community time to move. They also went ahead and unbeknown to us the Ministry went ahead and allocated families to other farms irrespective of whether they were part of a self-help group or not. In light of the Police and army’s position regarding the relocation vigilantes were brought in to forcibly move people. Houses were demolished and in the ensuring chaos it is rumoured 2 people died from the effects of tear gas. The development committee went back to their lawyer and got an urgent injunction on the evictions. We have repeatedly tried to get to re-convene a meeting with the Ministry but they have refused. On the other hand because the Development Committee got court injunctions they have not seen the need to get back on the negotiating table with Government. Government and the City of Harare have on their on part petitioned the High Court.

My personal opinion is that Court battles only give temporary reprieve. If a permanent solution has to be found we have to get back on the negotiating table. However on a personal level I get very angry and helpless. Government has not negotiated in good faith. It feels a bit pointless to engage officers within the Ministry when chances are a politician will come and tell them what to do contrary to what you would have agreed and you feel and know you can do nothing about it. …so we have just sat and waited for what I do not know.

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[1] Note gainfully employed loosely translated to mean formally employed. Thus a woman who sold vegetables in the market was excluded

[2] I Remember feeling very helpless and also guilty as I personally felt were failing the Porta Farm Community by not standing up.

[3] These are political appointees meant to counter and restle control of large cities from the opposition.