By Newzimbabwe
A health emergency is unfolding at Willdale Farm, where thousands of evicted Mt Hampden tenants are now stranded along the Harare–Chinhoyi Highway with some begging strangers for life-saving ARVs after losing their medication during last week’s State-sanctioned eviction.
When journalists arrived at the makeshift roadside camp on Monday, 40-year-old Danai Dube walked straight to them, her plea cutting through the noise and desperation surrounding the settlement.
“Do you have any ARVs with you? Even two will help my child and me,” she asked.
It was her fifth day without treatment.
“I only managed to grab two blankets when we were evicted,” she said.
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“Everything else was lost during the chaos. My life is at stake, and so is my child’s.
“Many of us here are in the same situation.”
More than 7,000 people were evicted from Old Willdale Compound after Willdale Bricks obtained a High Court order to reclaim land worth US$3 million, which the company says had been overrun by “illegal brickmakers.”
Residents say the eviction was brutal and sudden.
“We were surprised when the sheriff suddenly pounced on us with truckloads of anti-riot police,” said Moffat Chizarira.
“We were ordered out, our property was destroyed, and we lost documents, clothes, food everything.”
Now living in the open along a busy road and railway line, the families many descendants of Malawian and Mozambican farm labourers say they have nowhere else to go and no rural homes to turn to.
“There is no privacy, no dignity,” said Patricia Chiwanza.
“We risk waterborne diseases. We don’t have diapers, we don’t have food, and we don’t even have a place to bathe.”
Local councillor Clive Phiri said families have endured days of heavy rain with no shelter.
“Life has been so difficult… we are exposed to the rains every day. We need help.”
Zvimba East MP Kudakwashe Mananzva said government assistance has begun, while Civil Protection Unit Director Nathan Nkomo confirmed that temporary relocation land has been identified in Nyabira.
