"You can now find Zimbabweans not only in South Africa, Botswana and England - which have the largest populations of Zimbabweans - but in at least 80 other countries around the world."

This is according to Professor Brian Raftopolous, the Director of the Solidarity Peace Trust.

Raftopolous was introducing "A Fractured Nation", research on the displacement of Zimbabweans.

The report focuses on Operation Murambatsvina (OM), which took place in 2005, when government demolished informal houses in urban areas across Zimbabwe and forced urbanites to rural areas.

"The clean-up operation that happened in 2005 was the most devastating exercise undertaken in Zimbabwean history.

"The causes for it are still to be unearthed and there are various reasons given for it," said Raftopolous.

"Operations like this often do take place in states which want to set out their idea of sovereignty.

"Sovereignty being deciding who belongs and who does not belong to the nation at any one time. Part of that setting-out of the so-called limits is the kind of criminalisation which you see under OM."

Shari Eppol of the Solidarity Peace Trust Team says that people living in the Killarney informal settlement in Bulawayo have been displaced up to four times, because there is no tenure and no security, it's a humanitarian plight.

"Displacement happens on multiple levels. From rural to urban, vice versa and even over boundaries.

"Not once or twice but repeatedly over a series of years, decades and generations," says Tara Polzer of the Forced Migration Project.

"It is a sign of political disenfranchisement, it's not an accident, and it's not an exception, it's part of a very detailed political plan" says Polzer.

"In the Zimbabwean context involuntary mobility is the norm and it has been so for many years and it is non-reversible. It affects relationships, identity, stability and the livelihood of people."

In South Africa there has been a spate of xenophobic attacks where Zimbabwean and other African nationals have been on the receiving end of violent attacks.

Trevor Ngwane of the Centre for Civil Society says "No one is born xenophobic but there are certain extenuating circumstances."

He gave an example of textile factories in Durban, who employ 80% foreigners, most of whom are Zimbabwean.

Most of these workers are vulnerable to exploitation because they do not have permits.

Promise Mangcwetha says: "The issue of xenophobia needs to be resolved because it is bound to explode. The grievances of South Africans are real and the plight of Zimbabweans is real.

''A problem of this magnitude has been left to the South Africans and the foreigners on the ground to solve.

''The effects of OM can be seen and felt beyond the borders of Zimbabwe and southern Africans need to actively engage in providing solutions.

"Regional solutions on immigration laws, citizenship, labour rights, human rights and sanctions need to be created" says Raftopolous.

Responding to a question on whether any legal action had been taken to seek compensation for the displacement of people in Bulawayo, Solidarity stated that the dispensation of the OM had been ruled illegal three times by the Zimbabwean judicial system.

The state was fined and the operation was deemed illegal.

The people of Zimbabwe are yet to see the culmination of the fine, says Eppol.

By The Times (SA)