Umguza Illegal Settlers Left Homeless After Govt Torches Homes
Hundreds of families in Umguza were left stranded after the government launched a crackdown on people who illegally settled on various farms across the country.
About 240 families at Stoncroft Farm in Umguza district located just outside Bulawayo had their homes destroyed.
This comes after the government directed illegal setters to be removed from farms, notwithstanding that some had been living on the land for close to two decades.
Some of the affected people who spoke to NewZimbabwe.com said:
We occupied the farm in 2,000 although we have some people who came in 2012 and 2015.
The farm was lying idle when we came here, and we were shocked this week when Ndlovu came saying we should vacate.
His men started burning down our homesteads and all of us have been left homeless.
… We don’t know what we will do with our livestock as we can no longer drive them to the grazing land as we have been banned.
We had planted crops and all that will be wasted.
The government has been carrying out a countrywide audit of farms through the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture which targeted idle land and multiple farm ownership.
