Village Heads In Court For Selling State Land
Two village heads from Nyamandlovu appeared before Bulawayo Magistrate Maxwell Ncube on Friday, 23 February facing a charge of unlawfully allocating 38 stands to home seekers.
As reported by the Southern Eye, the accused are Chikombingo Moses Nyamande (84) and village development committee member Danisa Nyathi (59).
They were not asked to plead before being remanded to 21 March for trial.
Nyathi and Nyamande are resettled farmers on gazetted State land.
It is the State’s case that since 21 January 2023, Nyamande and Nyathi have allocated stands to 38 villagers without State authority.
The villagers allegedly moved onto the land and built structures.
On 22 January this year, police received a tip-off that the duo were illegally parcelling out State land and visited the area where they discovered that 38 illegal settlers had already built housing structures.
The accused failed to produce documentation authorising the settlers to occupy the land in question leading to their arrest.
Police recently launched “Operation Order No To Land Barons” targetting people accused of being irregularly settled on State land.
This has resulted in the arrest of hundreds of villagers across the country.
Four village heads from Dema in Mashonaland East Province were convicted after appearing in court for selling stands in undesignated places and pocketing the proceeds.
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