By Marvellous Matswimbo
Bulawayo Correspondent
Women in Ngozi-Mine one of the biggest squatter camps in Bulawayo and the city’s main garbage dumping site have lamented that the police are turning a blind eye to their reports because of their poor living conditions.
Many women have fallen victims of sexual and physical abuse and the police are reportedly doing close to nothing to assist the victims.
In an interview, Amandla Moyo said: “A lot of crimes are being committed against women in this area but the police have never helped us in anyway because we live in the slums and they somehow consider all of us to be criminals.”
“Women and girls are being raped and sometimes physically assaulted by their boyfriends or husbands but they have given up on reporting because non of these cases get solved at the end of the day,” she added.
Ngozi Mine is situated in Cowdray Park, one of the fastest growing suburbs in Bulawayo and it has over 300 slum dwellers with women constituting the highest number.
Another lady who requested anonymity said that, women and girls are not sexually assaulted by the slum dwellers but by people who come from nearby cities pretending to be buyers for the recycled materials.
“A lot of man come here pretending as if they want to by the bottles and cans that we recycle but they will be preying on our girls and women on the slums because they know our vulnerability”, she said.
She added: “Most of the times they target young girls that’s why you will realize that a lot of girls from the age of 15 and sometimes below are giving birth to fatherless kids. The stigma for rape victims around here is also high hence even when raped, these girls keep it to themselves as they feel like it’s the best solution.”
However, efforts to get a comment from the police spokesperson were in vain.
Angel Ndlovu said that “The law is failing us because we are thought of as criminals and it’s a difficult situation to accept because we are just like any other citizen, the difference is that we are not privileged enough to have decent homes or shelters hence we survive on recycling and staying in the garbage site.”
She added: “As women we are now living in fear because the people who are supposed to be helping us are ignoring our lamentations, we really wish something can be done. The city council knows that we are here hence we should be treated just like anyone else but when such crimes happen they blame the men from Ngozi Mine yet they won’t even be responsible.”