Govt Speaks On "Malunga Farm" Seizure Reports
The government has spoken on the alleged seizure of a farm that is allegedly co-owned by Siphosami Malunga (an international human rights lawyer), Zephaniah Dhlamini (the director of the National University of Science and Technology’s (Nust) Applied Genetics Testing Centre), and Charles Moyo.
The government said the repossessed farm in Matabeleland North does not belong to the Osisa director Malunga and his two partners but was compulsorily acquired under the Land Reform Programme in 2004 from a white farmer.
- Farm Owned By Son Of Ex-ZAPU Bigwig Malunga Seized
- We Will Repossess Farms And Distribute Them To The Youths – ED
- Bona Mugabe Loses Farm She Had Grabbed From Zanu-PF Politician
- ZANU PF Could Lose Support Over Farm Evictions – War Veteran
- Submit Production Returns By January Or Lose Your Farms – Govt To Farmers
- Mugabe’s Nephew Loses Farm Dispute With Kirsty Coventry
The Herald reports that Malunga and his partners later bought a shadowy company that claimed to own the farm but did not have exclusive ownership of the land in question since it had been acquired by the Government almost two decades before.
Matabeleland North Province Minister of State Hon Richard Moyo said told the state-run publication that there was no seizure of black-owned farms adding that Malunga and his partners can benefit from the largesse if they do not own land elsewhere. He said:
_The farm in question belonged to white farmers by the name of Swindells. When Government compulsorily acquired land in the 2000s we did not immediately resettle people because there was a black man by the name of Eddie Warambwa who claimed to have bought the farm from the white man. It was only after his death that we realised that he was a front of the white man and measures were taken to repossess the land, there is no victimisation here._
_Maybe Mr Malunga and his partners bought assets on the farm but certainly not the land as it belongs to Government. We are in the process of allocating the land and those who were on the farm will benefit just as any other Zimbabwean if they do not have another piece of land elsewhere._
This comes as This comes after Malunga had claimed that the farm belongs to him and his colleagues vowing to fight back.
More: Pindula News; The Herald
