Tofa, The Bible and the Quest for Democracy and Democratization in Africaties in other African and European countries. Neighbouring countries
notably South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia
bore the brunt of this mass exodus. The mass exodus prompted the late
Zambian President (Levy Mwanawasa) to regard Zimbabwe as “a sink-
ing titanic whose members are jumping out”^12 and xenophobic attacks
according to some sections of the media.
This was interpreted in the context of a derelict economic order. These
activities bailed many families out of abject impoverishment. In the
housing sector, the people of Zimbabwe experienced severe accommo-
dation problems because the government had built a few houses since
independence. Zimbabwe, to date, remains one of the African countries
with a very poor accommodation delivery system. Since there has been a
high rate of rural-urban migration, the demand for accommodation
became increasingly high and the overcrowding led to the death of over a
thousand people from communicable diseases.
The problem of acute shortage of accommodation and the ever-increas-
ing standard of living, coerced (especially in high density suburbs) began
to build backyard houses. These backyard structures played a pivotal role
in providing accommodation to the majority, many of whom could not
afford to rent houses in medium and low density suburbs.
However, in 2005, the government moved to destroy the backyard
houses and vending sites nationwide in an operation which was meant
to “clean up” the cities code-named “Murambatsvina” (Clean up filth).
The operation was so brutal because of its celerity, ferocity and catholic-
ity. The plan to embark on this operation was made clandestinely and
quickly as if the government was dealing with a dangerous and crafty
terrorist group and not its own nationals because in this operation, the
government made use of state security forces in a way that was evocative
of the brutality the people of Zimbabwe experienced under the colonial
security forces.
Both the national and the international community reprobated the op-
eration because of the profundity of its brutality. The operation attracted
the attention of the United Nations that then UN Secretary General Kofi
Anan sent an envoy on a fact-finding mission. The fact finding mission,
headed by Tibaijuka, came to Zimbabwe and carried out a full-scale
inquiry into the on-going operation. The mission produced a compre-
(^12) See Parick Tom “Mwanawasa Slams Zimbabwe” The Independent, June 20, 2007, Main
Paper Section.