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The Tabata Dampo experience
2008-03-23 10:39:13
By Lucas Lukumbo
Daggers are drawn between the Ilala Municipal Council and the Tabata Dampo residents numbering 500 over the manner in which their 88 houses were recently flattened by bulldozers from the municipality.
While the government is all out to find a solution to the saga, one thing is obvious - the residents are currently living in hell.
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the area narrate their plight in tears. Sobbing at the memory, Mary Peter (52) recalls how on February 29 this year a fleet of bulldozers ran over 88 houses, abruptly rendering 500 persons homeless.
``We thought this could not happen in our country. We often see on television, people`s houses being destroyed by enemy troops. Now it has come to our country,`` she says as she struggles to balance her granddaughter strapped on her back.
Mary is one of the victims of the Ilala Municipal Council demolition exercise in Dar es Salaam which the government has been prompted to investigate by forming a probe committee.
The government thinks there has been a miscarriage of justice in the manner the decision to demolish the houses was reached. The Ilala Municipal Director, John Lubuva, has subsequently been suspended over the issue.
Mary Peter told The Guardian on Sunday that she has been in the area since 1984 and that for her it had been an uphill sturggle to build the house which was demolished by the council.
``I now share a tent with my children and grandchildren. Life has been very difficult for us,`` she said, holding two of her grandchildren, Maria (3) and Teddy (seven months).
Others she shares the tent with include her son Husseni Kasoli (28), her daughters Maria Thomas (20), Asha Kasoli (20) and Mariam Kasoli (21).
A blind woman Sophia John (30) told this reporter that after the demolition she does not know where her aunt Sarah William, who was staying with her, had gone.
She said it could be that the aunt fears that if she goes back to the area, she might be apprehended by the authorities.
``I really blame those who demolished the houses. It has separated us,`` Sophia says, appealing to the community to help her at these difficult times.
The blind woman was undergoing treatment at a hospital in Dar es Salaam for her loss of vision which was caused by eye pressure. ``Doctors were saying I could recover my vision if I were to go on with the medication. Now that my aunt is nowhere to be found I will remain blind for good.``
KIWILA John (35) who rescued the blind woman and gave her temporary accommodation in his brother’s house says it was not difficult to accommodate the blind woman but the family has no means of maintaining her.
``We are running short of food supply because we cannot go to do business as we have to stay here to guard our belongings,`` he said.
Maria Lwambano (32) says she has been affected very much because her family was in disarray. ``We have to stay awake all night for fear that thieves might steal our belongings,`` she says, adding that contrary to the previous family arrangement, both her male and female children are now sleeping in one place.
According to residents at the dump area, an old man Vincent Kampambe collapsed after the demolition of his house.
He was immediately whisked to a nearby health facility and was now being cared for by his relatives.
It was not immediately known what his current health condition is.
Deogratius Edward (20) a Form Six student at the Liberty High School in Mbezi was seen by this reporter rummaging for his books and exercise books in the debris of his demolished house.
``I have lost almost all the text and exercise books. In fact I have lost even my Form Four leaving certificate of Kibo High School where I finished in 2006,`` he said, adding that he cannot study at the make-shift home because of the unfavourable conditions.
Two sisters, Hawa Ali Msofe (29) and Usna Ali Msofe (28), share a small hut they together put up by arranging the broken bricks after the demolition.
They say life is unbearable at the camp as bandits were always around their hut ``with a mission`` we do not know. ``We are worried over our lives,`` they said and asked the police to provide 24-hour security at the area.
The Chairman of the residents`` committee formed after the demolition, Said Masoud, has said property worth 5,732,900,800/- has been destroyed by the demolition.
This he said included houses destroyed worth 4,809,911,000/-, household items (754,627,000/-) and shops (168,362,800/-).A letter written by the committee to the Ilala Municipal Council Director recently said the money should be paid to enable people reconstruct their lives.
It was copied to the Prime Minister`s Office, Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner, National Security Service, Ilala District Commissioner and other government offices.
The letter included a list of people whose property was destroyed. ``We will not accept any government conditionality short of being paid the money immediately,`` the chairman said.
The government has formed a probe committee to look into the events at Tabata and was expected to give its findings today.Speaking on the effects of the demolition, the chairman said life for the affected has come to a standstill.
``People are not going out to their businesses to look for money because they have to stay here to guard their belongings from theft. Children are not going to school because they also have to be around when adults are out of their compounds.
We fear our children are going to drop in their studies. ``Can you imagine a man and wife just looking at each other for days without sharing a bed? You cannot do that with children around you.
Our marriages are under threat,`` he said. He also expressed concern over the state of food that was being brought to the place, saying a lot was not good for human consumption.
He showed this reporter some of the rice which was infested with larvae and other insects.
According to the leadership of the area, the CCM Secretary General Yusufu Makamba was informed about the state of rice and has promised to provide fresh rice.
``He apologized for the bad rice but has promised us fresh rice,`` the CCM branch chairman in the area Tausendi Hariri told the Guardian on Sunday yesterday.
He said he was glad that some of those officials the residents wanted punished are being dealt with by the government. He cited the suspension of the Ilala Director as a case in point.
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