LATEST CLEAN UP OPERATION TARGETS MBARE MARKET

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 000946 SIPDIS SIPDIS AF/S FOR H.SERVIN-BAEZ SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/27/2015 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL ZI SUBJECT: LATEST CLEAN UP OPERATION TARGETS MBARE MARKET REF: A. REF A: HARARE 721 ¶B. REF B: HARARE 583 Classified By: Charge d,affaires Michael Raynor under Section 1.4 b/d ¶1. (SBU) Officials from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on July 21 reported to post that police on July 14 and 15 demolished the Magaba informal marketplace in Harare's high-density suburb of Mbare. Magaba venders told an Embassy local staff member on July 24 that police on horseback descended on the marketplace and ordered them to destroy their impromptu stalls. IOM initially estimated that some 90 traders had been displaced, but Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) spokesmen Precious Shumba told poloff on July 25 that about 200 had been affected. ¶2. (SBU) The informal traders told our local staff member that, after last year's clean-up operations, the Harare City Council had promised stalls and workshops at the nearby Siya-So marketplace. Siya-So quickly became overcrowded, prompting many traders to return to Magaba. CHRA officials told us the City Council only became aware of the reemergence of Magaba ) which is hidden from the street by a block of stores - after the owner of the property applied for a dog breeding license and the council came out to investigate. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶3. (C) More than a year after the destruction of homes and businesses of an estimated 700,000 people, the reverberations of Operation Restore Order/Murambatsvina continue. The destruction of Magaba market is only the latest small-scale GOZ effort to clean the city of "undesirables" (Ref A and B). While at this point the displacement at Magaba appears limited and no other informal markets have been targeted, we cannot rule out the possibility that these events will grow in scale. RAYNOR