In Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, police have moved in with officials from the local council to demolish informal stalls used by small traders. Footage on Al Jazeera shows one big demolition effort in the market off Cha Cha Cha Road.
I noted the plans to start such a program in a diary in March on Daily Kos. The initial report on the Al Jazeera web site did not give me much cause for concern:
The government has said it intends to destroy all illegal and unplanned homes and shops, starting in Lusaka where many impoverished informal settlements infringe on roads, railways, power lines and government-owned land.
But it had earlier assured.
Most of the the houses were still under construction and not yet inhabited.
The market stalls shown today were certainly not still under construction. I had browsed round them myself in 2001. They were now on AJ being destroyed with the stock still inside.
A representative from the local council was interviewed explaining that the stallholders had been given notices over the weeks before the demolitions explaining they must leave. Apart from an obvious, though probably unlikely, illiteracy, a combination of optimism, the stalls being their only source of income and the laid back attitude to time prevalent must have given them a certain assurance leading to inertia. They were very mistaken and they were now losing their stock as well as the stall. Some were near to riot and only the presence of police on horseback maintained a degree of order.
While I would be happy if they jailed the corrupt ministers and threw away the keys, this really is too much. In a country where making a living is precarious at best, loosing your livelihood is devastating. I promptly penned the following email to the High Commissioner in London. I urge you to express your concerns to your local Zambian Embassy or High Commission.
To His Excellency, the High Commissioner of Zambia
Dear Sir,
I had the greatest pleasure of visiting your beautiful country in 2001 to observe the total solar eclipse. I still have the commemorative stamps I purchased in the central Post Office in Lusaka and remember shopping nearby. Everywhere in Lusaka and Livingstone, which I took the opportunity of visiting, I was afforded the utmost courtesy and welcome. I was very admiring of the preparations for the elections which were then due and the degree to which the principles of democratic involvement and the criticism of officials had been assimilated into the everyday life of your country. You may recall that at that time the matter of importation of vehicles for senior Government ministers was active in the newspapers.
When I first read of proposals by your President to demolish certain structures illegally erected because of the possible corruption involved in the ignoring of planning laws, I was pleased to note that these actions were not to go unpunished. You will therefore understand my concern and alarm when I saw on Al Jazeera’s English station this morning the demolition of the small stalls in the market off Cha Cha Cha Road in Lusaka. Surely those were the ones I visited opposite the Post Office. Whilst I understand that the Council had issued notices, the actual demolition, with the stallholders apparently being able to recover their goods, seemed somewhat heavy handed. I would urge your Government to make provision for a properly planned market in your urban renewal so that these entrepreneurs can have somewhere to restart legally. There are very popular open markets, around permanent shops, in central Johannesburg and no doubt you will be familiar with the open and sheltered ones in this country. Far from detracting from tourism which must be a big consideration for you, such small markets are an attraction. Camden Market, Petticoat Lane and Portobello Road in London being but a few examples.
I understand from the report that the next stage is to move on to illegally erected housing. The earlier reports I saw about this assured that these would only consist of unoccupied buildings. As the nights will soon be getting very cold, I hope this is the case. If occupied shacks are to be demolished, I urge you in the strongest possible terms to make sure that those living there are properly housed. I am aware you must feel that the shanties lining the railway line must seem like merely an eyesore but they are all the homes that the people in them have. As a visitor, I would rather see them than a well manicured open space, knowing that people have been displaced.
I am sure you will be well aware that Zimbabwe has had much adverse criticism for the instigation of “Operation Drive out the Filth”. Several organisations in South Africa, notably the churches, have been able to publish case studies of those displaced in that process. The suffering and deaths are resulting from these demolitions are unsupportable and unforgivable. I cannot urge your government enough not to follow this example and make the poorest of the poor homeless.
Yours faithfully
