‘Restoring Order’? Operation Murambatsvina and the Urban Crisis in Zimbabwe

Potts, Deborah

doi:10.1080/03057070600656200

Cited by 142 publications

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“…50 Local construction workers affirmed this trend, with one noting of the regulatory regime that 'there are people who say it is like Europe'. 51 The strong hand of the state on illegal construction by the poor is not an uncommon phenomenon (Durrand-Lasserve and Royston, 2002;Payne, 2001;Potts, 2006). However, the commitment to a policy of zero tolerance to illegal construction over a sustained period (rather than just sporadic crackdowns), including for wealthy investors, is more unusual.…”

Section: Planning and The Politics Of Kigali's Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planning and development regulation amid rapid urban growth: Explaining divergent trajectories in Africa

Goodfellow

2013

Geoforum

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Original citation:Goodfellow, Tom (2013) Planning and development regulation amid rapid urban growth: explaining divergent trajectories in Africa. Geoforum, 48 . pp. 83-93. ISSN 0016-7185 © 2013 Elsevier AbstractWhy are urban plans, land use regulations and construction codes implemented effectively in some African states but not others? This constitutes an increasingly urgent development concern with major implications for the environment and the urban poor. Rather than being explained by economic factors, bureaucratic capacity or the nature of the urban policies and regulations in place, this paper argues that divergent outcomes are largely rooted in differing political bargaining environments. Comparing Uganda and Rwanda, it presents an empirical study that analyses contrasting planning and regulation trajectories in contexts of similarly low levels of socioeconomic development and soaring rates of urban growth. It argues that the divergent outcomes can be explained in relation to the political resources and incentives confronted by governing elites, which in Rwanda impel state actors to implement plans and regulations while in Uganda incentivize overriding them in the interests of political or economic gain. In highlighting political bargaining contexts and how these change over time, the paper illustrates the critical importance of historically informed city-level political economy analysis for understanding divergent urban development outcomes.

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Section: Planning and The Politics Of Kigali's Transformationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planning and development regulation amid rapid urban growth: Explaining divergent trajectories in Africa

Goodfellow

2013

Geoforum

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“…(Potts, 2006;Kamete, 2010); and the eviction of street vendors in major urban centres of Malawi in 2006 (Sabola, 2006) are recent examples of such delusions of an elitist minority that have degenerated into nightmares for many. In all these cases, the authorities seem to have rejected the notion that informality possesses the "ability to act as a coping mechanism where corporate capitalism does not .…”

Section: The Desired City and The Actually Existing Citymentioning

confidence: 99%

On handling urban informality in southern africa

Kamete

2013

Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography

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In this paper I reconsider the handling of urban informality by urban planning and management systems in southern Africa. I argue that authorities have a fetish about formality and that this is fuelled by an obsession with urban modernity. I stress that the desired city, largely inspired by Western notions of modernity, has not been and cannot be realised. Using illustrative cases of top-down interventions, I highlight and interrogate three strategies that authorities have deployed to handle informality in an effort to create or defend the modern city. I suggest that the fetish is built upon a desire for an urban modernity based on a concept of formal order that the authorities believe cannot coexist with the 'disorder' and spatial 'unruliness' of informality. I question the authorities' conviction that informality is an abomination that needs to be 'converted', dislocated or annihilated. I conclude that the very configuration of urban governance and socio-economic systems in the region, like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, renders informality inevitable and its eradication impossible.

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“…Urban poverty in Zimbabwe declined through the 1980s. In 1981 around 30 per cent were below the minimum wage in high-density areas in Harare and by 1991 this had fallen to 10-15 per cent, making urban Zimbabweans amongst the wealthiest and most secure anywhere in Africa (Potts 2006). But during the 1990s urban poverty increased, mainly due to stabilization policies associated with structural adjustment, and has mushroomed since 2000 (ibid.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Farm invasions began during the early months of 2000 (Chaumba, Scoones and Wolmer 2003). These may have been spontaneous or orchestrated by the war vets but they coincided with a regional rainfall shock and harvest failures which were so severe that they precipitated demands for food aid (Potts 2006).…”

Section: Box 2 Fast Track Land Reformmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Vulnerability, Poverty and Coping in Zimbabwe

Bird

Prowse

2009

SSRN Journal

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This paper uses five life histories from three locations in Zimbabwe-one peri-urban, one urban and one rural-to provide a window on current processes of impoverishment and adverse coping. Each case and location highlight key aspects of Zimbabwe's recent economic and political turmoil. Together the cases suggest that, similar to Hoddinott's work on the persistence of the 1993-94 rainfall shock in rural Zimbabwe, above and beyond increased mortality rates and morbidity levels, current adverse forms of coping are creating widespread irreversible wellbeing losses. The persistent effects of the current crisis surely adds weight to arguments that the international community should be more, rather than less, proactive in delivering aid to the Zimbabwean people, despite the politicization of aid and logistical difficulties.

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‘Restoring Order’? Operation Murambatsvina and the Urban Crisis in Zimbabwe

Cited by 142 publications

References 0 publications

Planning and development regulation amid rapid urban growth: Explaining divergent trajectories in Africa

Planning and development regulation amid rapid urban growth: Explaining divergent trajectories in Africa

On handling urban informality in southern africa

Vulnerability, Poverty and Coping in Zimbabwe

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