Planning scholarship and the fetish about planning in Southern Africa: the case of Zimbabwe’s operation Murambatsvina

ABSTRACT

Contributing to the resurgent debate on urban informality in the global south, Kamete (2013) charged that urban planners in Southern Africa have a fetish about informality that is fuelled by an obsession with modernity. In these and other writings, Zimbabwe’s 2005 Operation Murambatsvina (OM) is used as a prototype planning malfeasance. Using the concept of fetish and fetishism, this paper argues that a fixation on and fetish about planning and planners has led some planning scholars to churn out misplaced or misleading understandings of OM regarding the role of planning (in) the operation. Inevitably, recommendations for planning reform from such scholarship are largely inefficacious. It is time planning scholars looked seriously beyond planning for both analytical tools and space for political activism.

KEYWORDS:

• Fetish
• planning
• Murambatsvina
• Zimbabwe
• Southern Africa
• urban informality

Acknowledgements

There was no government, private sector, donor or any funding agency grant support to this work. The author would like to thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments and key informants in Zimbabwe who provided insights and information.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. See periodic media reports in New Zimbabwe.com; Nehanda Radio; Newsdzezimbabwe.co.ok including the latest for demolitions in Harare. Accessed July 3, 2017. http://nehandaradio.com/2016/10/27/demolitions-leave-3000-families-homeless-along-harare-masvingo-road-pictures/.

2. Bulawayo’s second Master Plan since independence in 1980. Since 1980, nearly all Master Plans in Zimbabwe have been prepared by local experts and the 2000 Bulawayo Plan had the greatest citizen and stakeholder involvement.

3. Most of these reports can be found. Accessed June 30, 2017. at http://www.sarpn.org.za/ (search for murambasvina on that site).

4. At the time of OM, the city was run by a government appointed Commission chaired by Mrs Sekesai Makwavarara.

5. Abundant media articles and videos include The Guardian (2015) ‘Marikana massacre: the untold story of the strike leader who died for workers’ rights’. Accessed July 3, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/19/marikana-massacre-untold-story-strike-leader-died-workers-rights.

6. Party activists now prefix ‘revolutionary’ in any reference to the ruling party and sections of the Zimbabwean media seems to have taken it up partly as a mockery.