Almost 3 Years On, This Cyclone Idai Survivor Is Still Living In A Camp And Waiting To Be Relocated

Families sat around almost worn-out tents mark the scenes at Aboratum Camp, in Chimanimani, the last one of three temporary holding camps for Cyclone Idai survivors. I visited the camp to interview a survivor, who lost one of his children, during the storm.

EDITORS NOTE: Interviews were conducted at the end of 2021

In the midst of the chaos, a group of men help each other in lifting varied household items into a haulage truck as families prepare to move to a new settlement.

This is one of the last trips facilitated by the government in partnership with the International Organization for Migration and other donor partners. The aim of their collaboration is to relocate families displaced by the highly destructive tropical storm.

It's almost three years since Cyclone Idai swept through Manicaland province on the Eastern part of Zimbabwe, leaving a major trail of destruction on infrastructure and the environment.

It killed hundreds of people, submerged homes and battered parts of Zimbabwe. The whole world watched through the footage shared on social media as parts of Southern Africa, including Mozambique and Malawi succumbed to the storm.

Although organisations have tried to help by providing utilities, the operation has further divided residents as some "selfish" citizens continue to vandalise or steal the sponsored amenities like streetlights, electric cables, taps and sporting equipment, at the expense of those still stuck at the camps.

Still here

Sitting inside a makeshift shed next to the canvas tent he's called home for the past thirty months, Sugate Takarwira, 42, watches his chickens closely. He tells Awallprintss that the chickens have become a newly found life sustenance project.

“Those vehicles are here to collect the last batch of landlords not us the lodgers, no one has told us what will happen to us and when so we just sit tight,” he says.

He adds that he's unsure if the transport will even come back for him and the rest of the lodgers stuck at the camp and even if they do - he's not sure when.

The Covid-19 pandemic may have played a part in the time its taken to relocate survivors but - again - he's not sure.

According to the 42-year old, residents who owned houses before the cyclone hit in the dark hours of March 15 in 2019 have been getting first preference for the delayed relocation while those who were tenants have been treated as "second-class citizens" and left to second-guess their destiny.

“People here have been grouped and those being called lodgers like me have not been told what their fate is yet the so-called landlords have been getting relocated,” he claims, adding,

“It worries me sometimes because we are all facing the same predicament and what I know is that it is our right to be informed of what will happen on time so we make appropriate plans about our future.”

Reported as one of the most destructive Indian Ocean cyclones on record, the fierce currents blowing at high speeds over 168km/hour washed away hundreds of households killing and maiming thousands while destroying property worth millions of dollars.

International organisations’ statistics estimate that around 250 000 people across the three districts of Chimanimani, Chipinge and Mutare were directly affected by the catastrophic occurrence.

To date there has been commendable restoration of public infrastructure like roads and bridges yet the precarious lives of many cyclone victims have turned worse as each day passes.

Takarwira has been worried about how long he will have to live like this since the morning after the ferocious tides.

Sugate Takarwira chronicles his life at Aboratum with his wife beside him

As soon as the skies cleared and news about the disaster perforated different online platforms, attracting attention worldwide, he recounts, “I had to reconcile with the fact that I was now a charity case” and “the only belongings left to my name were a tattered t-shirt and fleece trousers I had put on before bed.”

“A kind lady who saw me that next morning gave me the work suit I am wearing now and I love these clothes as they remind me of the kind gesture,” he recounted.

That act of generosity was perhaps one of the last things that have drawn a genuine smile from him to date. The days, weeks and months after the incident have been nothing but a consistent string of unfulfilled expectations coupled with pale dreams of a stable life, he told AWP.

“We face a lot of challenges here but one of the biggest issues is this unfair treatment we get, it is psychologically strenuous and it is much more painful coming from another victim of the cyclone,” says Takarwira.

“I lost part of my family, belongings, some tuck-shop goods and livestock do you think that if I had a choice I would sit and relax under such a situation?”

Kuda Ndima, his wife quickly interjects: “One would think that we had seen the worst after that cyclone washed away all our possessions and killed our child but it appears this was just the beginning.”

Close to three years in the squalid conditions of worn out tents sponsored by international donor organisations is far from what Takarwira had imagine following government reassurances.

A picture showing some of the canvas tents at the holding camp.

“We have heard a lot promises from the government over time including one from the president (Emmerson Mnangagwa) who came on the ground a few days after the cyclone and clearly said that we had been offered adequate help,” said Takarwira who recalls the speech word for word.

Speaking at Ngangu - Mnangagwa announced, to wild cheers, that the then president of the USA Donald Trump had promised a donation of $2.5 million to assist the people adding that they could “give us additional support from their station in South Africa”.

However, after two fearsome rainy seasons in a leaky tiny tent, countless nights slept on empty bellies and the Covid-19 pandemic, Takarwira is convinced this was hot air because the said money and aid still has not provided them a half-decent life for over two and a half years.

“We believed that with that money the government was going to swiftly intervene because how could they fail after parading that we had lost everything and attracted worldwide sympathy as well as handouts?” he quizzed.

This poses a question on whether the government of Zimbabwe has put in place the appropriate means to deal with socio-economic impacts of natural disasters that have been on the rise of late owing to climate change.

In a report on Cyclone Idai Donations released in July last year, the country’s Office of the Auditor-General flagged some shortcomings that they termed a distressing tale of confusion and mismanagement in the handling of the disaster.

“The unimaginable and colossal damage inflicted by Cyclone Idai caught the Civil Protection Organization unaware and ill-prepared to deal with the disaster of such magnitude.

“There were no robust and water-tight procedures and policies designed to match and address emergency disasters of the posed by Cyclone Idai,” reads part of the findings that also cited slow distribution of funds, food and medicine as well as inadequate rehabilitation as pitfalls in the national disaster response strategies.

Meanwhile, an unclear number of people have already been injured during floods in the 2021/2022 rain season while over 300 households have reportedly been damaged across the country including Manicaland province, where Chimanimani is located.

Flash floods and Cyclone Ana, the latest storm reported, have swept through the Eastern part of the country in the past weeks leaving traces of destruction yet to be ascertained.

The government through Department of Civil Protection says it has put in place a National Contingency Plan to minimize the impact but Takarwira, who has since been moved to Chayemiti roughly two hours’ drive from where Aboratum was located is still terrified.

There, he currently lives in a provisional wooden cabin awaiting a permanent structure promised by government.

Although better the new structure is not safe still and his fears, exacerbated by case studies like Tokwe Mukosi flood disaster where by 2020 -seven years after the incident- victims still lacked social amenities and appropriate housing, are what if another cyclone strikes them before they settle permanently.

“What if we never get a chance to start our normal lives afresh?” he interrogated.

“If they had told us way back that relocation and getting proper accommodation would take this long, we would not have waited, we would have continued with our lives already.”

Awallprintss has sent a right of reply to the government on when the final set of survivors are to be relocated from the camps.