Publication

This briefing paper presents results of a 2005 survey conducted in Zimbabwe about public perceptions of the Zimbabwean government's urban clean-up campaign, Operation Murambatsvina (OM). Under this operation, homes and businesses were destroyed, people were evicted from their places of residence or arrested for engaging in illegal activities. The authors estimate that 2.7 million people were affected by OM, especially those in the most productive segments of the population. The authors find that a majority of those surveyed believe OM to have been a bad thing, causing unnecessary hardship.