adminACTING President Phelekezela Mphoko yesterday convened a meeting with traditional leaders from Matabeleland South Province to look into the dispute over illegal settlements at Debshan Ranch in Insiza District which has taken time to be resolved.
The Acting President met chiefs Nyangazonke, Mathema and Jahana together with Provincial Administrator Mr Midard Khumalo and the Rural Development, Preservation and Promotion of Culture and Heritage Minister Cde Abednico Ncube to discuss the issue in Bulawayo yesterday.
“We have a challenging issue at Debshan Ranch, under Chief Jahana as the area is over-settled and the chief is facing problems as there are people that are harassing him so the VP called us all so that he could get an account of what is really transpiring in the area. He assigned us to resolve the issues as soon as possible,” said Minister Ncube.
Chief Jahana said his clan was evicted from Gwamanyanga by the colonial regime in 1965 and spent 43 years in Gokwe and conducted their first chief installation ceremony on their ancestral land since their return in 2008.
“In 2006 after our people returned to Insiza we found people from Midlands having settled in the area. They said they were the owners of the land and said since our fathers had left they were no longer owners of the land. They said we have to go back to Gokwe,” he said.
He said some of the settlers were using violence as a means of settling issues.
“They are saying I have to report to them if I have any programmes to do in the area but this is my area. How do I report to them? I was born a chief. The other challenge is that these settlers have a tendency of passing by my homestead in a drunken stupor and they insult me, they throw stones at my homestead and this has forced me to remove my family from the homestead as it is not safe,” said Chief Jahana.
Chief Jahana said he didn’t want to fight but was hoping with the intervention of Cde Mphoko, the issue will be finalised.
Minister Ncube, however, said overpopulation was a common feature in some areas.
Chief Jahana last year fired 28 village heads for illegally selling land in Insiza District and ordered all those who had bought the stands to vacate the area or risk being forcibly removed. It was initially reported that two ward councillors and 27 village heads were selling land for amounts ranging between $600 and $1 000 or for a single beast. The Government allocated 1 054 stands in the area but there were now 3 386 of which 2 332 were illegally sold.
Bongani Ndlovu