Thirty-one families are facing imminent eviction from a farm in Banket measuring more than 624 hectares to accommodate Chief Zvimba, born Stanley Wurayayi Mhondoro.
According to <a href="https://www.newzimbabwe.com/over-30-families-face-eviction-from-farm-to-pave-way-for-chief-zvimba/">NewZimbabwe.com</a>, Ben Mutambu and 20 others appeared before a Chinhoyi magistrate last week and were granted US$40 bail each for illegally occupying gazetted land.
On Monday, 12 February, Vitalis Guviro (56) of Plot 8 Lion Kopje farm, Banket was arraigned before Chinhoyi Magistrate Rumbidzai Tshuma charged with contravening Section 3 (1) of the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act Chapter 20:28 for refusing to vacate part of the property that now belongs to Chief Zvimba.
Guviro was remanded on bail to 26 February for trial when an application for joinder with co-accused persons will be tendered.
The complainant in the matter is the State represented by lands officer, Wilfred Bika.
Prosecuting, Brighton Machekera alleged that on 06 July 2001, the Government of Zimbabwe acquired and gazetted Lion Kopje farm measuring 624.402 ha in extent.
The farm situated in the Zvimba District was planned by the relevant ministry and initially parcelled out to A1 farmers, who were granted offer letters.
It is further alleged that on 30 June 2010, the farm was changed to an A2 (commercial) farm and all A1 offer letters were withdrawn by the Ministry of Lands, including Plot 8 where Guviro is residing.
The whole of Lion Kopje farm was subsequently allocated to Chief Zvimba who was granted an offer letter in 2012.
It was heard the accused person was served with a withdrawal of land offer and also handed a relocation offer, but he refused to sign it.
This comes as the Government has embarked an exercise dubbed “Operation Order No To Land Barons” to remove people accused of being irregularly settled on State land.
Over the past few weeks, scores of villagers who have been living on the land for the past two decades have been arraigned before the courts for alleged illegal settlement and are now homeless.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

Pindula News

Dozens Of Families Face Eviction From Farm To Pave Way For Chief Zvimba

War veterans in Matabeleland North Province claim they have been let down by politicians.
Speaking to <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200021974/politicians-letting-us-down-war-vets">NewsDay</a> during a visit to Kusile district this week, Lupane war veterans district chairperson Jonathan Nkanyezi said politicians abandoned them once they are elected into Parliament and council. He said:
<blockquote>
We always face so many challenges in this area. My worry is about all the leaders who are supposed to represent us in Parliament.
We chose those people so that they can help us air our grievances to the President on our behalf, but they seem like they do not care at all.
Right now as it is, the country is experiencing drought, and our livestock does not have water, but no one has come to us to at least listen to what we have to say.
The cattle are affected and we want those who represent us in Parliament to do their job.
Bring people to our villages to see what is on the ground. The problems and challenges that we have are enormous.
I want them to know that we chose them to stand for us and they should do so.
We do not want any surprises at all because we trusted them to put word for us to the president since we cannot on our own.
</blockquote>
The war veterans were among the people who were allocated some communal wildlife conservancies in the timber and wildlife-rich Emmergroon Estate by the government in 2001.
The area is located along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Highway in the Gwayi area and is now bearing the brunt of neglect and marginalisation.
However, Chief Menyezwa, who presides over the area, told NewsDay he could not respond to issues raised because traditional leaders were not informed or consulted when the people were settled in the area.
According to a report by the Centre for Conflict Management and Transformation, resettlement areas in Zimbabwe face several challenges in the provision of basic social services such as schools and adequate health facilities.
The process of resettlement was rapid and with little planning, leading to inadequate financial resources, political interference, and increasing numbers of vulnerable children and orphans.
More: <a href="https://www.pindula.co.zw/">Pindula News</a>

MPs, Councillors Letting Us Down - War Veterans

Resettled farmers have defied a directive to submit annual production returns, reported <a href="https://businesstimes.co.zw/farmers-defy-govt/">Business Times</a>.
The government plans to use the annual production returns as a basis to issue A1 permits and 99-year leases for A2.
Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister Anxious Masuka recommended that a Statutory Instrument (SI) should be gazetted to enforce the directive. He said:
<blockquote>
We recommend that the annual production and productivity returns should be (done) to guide production and investment. An SI should be issued to make it mandatory for A1 and A2 farmers to submit these annual returns.
This (submission of returns) is an audit on how the farmers are utilising their land, which will decide whether they deserve to have the entire farms to themselves or should share with others or even be moved to smaller land portions that they can fully utilise.
</blockquote>
In 2021, the government threatened to remove all the farmers who fail to submit the returns forms but farmers have not complied with the directive.
Zimbabwe Commercial Farmers Union (ZCFU) president Shadreck Makombe called on farmers to submit the returns forms as required. He said:
<blockquote>
We urge all farmers, be it A1 or A2, to submit the annual production and productivity return forms on time to fast-track the issuance of securitised documents.
All farmers should submit and you never know the day when others will get the securitised documents.
</blockquote>
In March 2022, Masuka said the returns will be used to assess if they qualify to be issued with a 99-year lease.
More: <a href="https://www.newsday.co.zw/local-news/article/200009522/ed-demands-re-run-in-violence-hotspots">Pindula News</a>

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