Mick Hartley

A UN report condemns Mugabe’s slum clearance:

Hundreds of thousands of homes in the country’s shanty towns have been torched and bulldozed in recent months.

Zimbabwe says the demolitions aim to clean up urban areas and ensure building regulations are followed.

But the UN report, to be released in full later on Friday, says the policy is disastrous and inhumane.

Meanwhile:

Zimbabwe has cracked down on churches sheltering victims of Robert Mugabe’s “clean-up” operation that has made a million people homeless.

Riot police in the western city of Bulawayo yesterday raided at least five churches that were sheltering about 500 people affected by President Mugabe’s Operation Murambatsvina, which translates as Operation “drive out filth”.

The authorities have also banned church officials and organisations from a government holding camp outside the city to which the displaced are being moved.

While African politicians, notably Thabo Mbeki, refuse to condemn Mugabe, Wole Soyinka has no such qualms:

One of Africa’s best-known authors, Wole Soyinka, has called for sanctions to be imposed on Zimbabwe, calling the situation there “a disgrace” to Africa.
The Nigerian writer said President Mugabe was typical of “rogues and monsters” clinging to power in Africa.

African leaders have been reluctant to criticise human rights abuses in Zimbabwe; many see Mr Mugabe as a hero of the struggle against colonialism.

Mr Soyinka said this kind of solidarity was wrong and should be ended.

He was speaking in South Africa, where he is due to give a lecture on Friday as part of the celebration of former President Nelson Mandela’s 87th birthday. […]

Mr Soyinka said that many African leaders oppressed their people just as much as colonial rulers.

“I don’t care about the colour of the foot pressing on my neck – I just want to remove it,” the Nobel laureate said.