Esidakeni Farm Wrangle: NUST Lecturer Ordered To Pay US$340K To OSISA Director
The Bulawayo High Court has ordered ZANU PF-linked NUST lecturer Dumisani Madzivanyathi to pay US$340 000 to Esidakeni farm owners in Nyamandlovu in Matebeleland North.
Madzivanyathi and ZANU PF Secretary for Administration, Obert Mpofu have refused to vacate the property despite two Supreme and High Court orders for them to do so.
Madzivanyathi, who has businesses in Bulawayo, was sometime this year ejected from the property by the Deputy Sheriff but defied the move.
Simposami Malunga and his two partners Zephaniah Dhlamini and businessman Charles Moyo were forced to approach the High Court after Madzivanyathi allegedly tampered with the irrigation system and deprived water to various crops, which later wilted.
Madzivanyathi was then ordered to pay nearly US$340 000, NewZimbabwe.com reported citing High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese’s judgment. Reads part of Justice Makonese’s judgment:
It is ordered that defendant pay the plaintiffs the amount of US$339 660.00 (three hundred and thirty nine six hundred and sixty thousand United States Dollars) or the equivalent amount in Zimbabwean dollars at the applicable interbank rate on the date of payment, interest on the above amount at the rate of 58 per annum, costs of suit.
Malunga and his partners had argued that they lost 150 000 planted tomatoes and 65 000 butternut crops as a result of the defendant’s disruptions at the farm.
They also accused Mpofu of stealing farm produce at the farm.
Esidakeni farm has been at the centre of an ownership battle after the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, and Rural Resettlement Anxious Masuku allocated part of the land to Mpofu and other beneficiaries.
Malunga and partners argue that Masuka’s conduct was in violation of laws which forbid the seizure of land owned by black farmers.
