adminMunyaradzi Musiiwa Midlands Correspondent
MORE than 300 families who were resettled in Linslade, Hashu and Albany Farms in Chirumhanzu by Chief Nhema face arrest and immediate eviction, Midlands provincial lands officer, Mr Joseph Shoko, has said. In August last year, Chief Nhema resettled 307 families on the land that had been reserved for livestock grazing without informing the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement and the responsible land committee after collecting $1 from each of the families.
Chief Nhema went on to write a letter compelling the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement to formalise the resettlements by issuing offer letters to the affected families.
Mr Shoko has reported Chief Nhema to police and a court hearing is pending at the Gweru magistrate’s court.
He said the resettled villagers face arrest and will be evicted from the farm as soon as possible.
“We are in the process of taking legal action against the families. We have made it a police case. We also reported Chief Nhema to the police for illegally resettling the families. Those people do not possess offer letters from our Ministry therefore they remain illegal settlers. We want the land redistribution process to be transparent and above board. The mandate to redistribute land has been given to our ministry so that there would be no confusion,” he said.
Mr Shoko said the three farms were gazetted in 2000 and Government resettled 302 families and issued them with offer letters.
He said each beneficiary was allocated 20 hectares of land and part of the land was reserved for grazing purposes.
Mr Shoko said the ministry was in total control of the land in question which also falls under the jurisdiction of Gweru land committee.
“Our ministry is the one responsible for distributing land under the land reform programme. We have the mandate to resettle people and we have ultimate powers. The land which Chief Nhema is claiming belongs to the ministry and we are definitely going to repossess it. Anyone who defies that position will be prosecuted. We would have appreciated if the chief had approached us so that we could identify land for his subjects.”
Chief Nhema, however, insisted that the land in question falls under his jurisdiction and vowed that the villagers would stay put.
“What I did was above board. The Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing is aware. We want the matter to be resolved amicably and we also do not want the villagers to be victimised in the process. As a traditional leader I am the custodian of land and also have the mandate to allocate land to my subjects,” he said.
Online Reporter