Zimbabwe is descending into chaos. Inflation is higher than anywhere else in the world. Basic food items cost more than month’s or even a year’s wages. “What is life like in Zimbabwe? Pretty terrible for most people. Many factories and other employers have closed as the economy has gone from bad to worse. Most of the population is trying to feed itself by growing food but the rains have not been good and hundreds of thousands are going hungry. Prices are rising by the day. Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate is 1,700% - the highest in the world. Basic items such as bread, sugar, petrol are often not available in local shops.” (BBC news website 29/3/7). Zimbabwe once had the highest life expectancy in Africa, now it is the lowest in the world, with figures of, at most, 37 for men and 34 for women.

In Zimbabwe, the poor in shanty towns, slums, illegal dwellings, and even some in brick houses with Court Orders against demolition, have been summarily evicted on a massive scale, leaving them with nothing. To add insult to the injury, and the inevitable deaths, this has been called Operation Murambatsvina, meaning ‘clearing out the rubbish’.