adminMashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
BINGA Rural District Council has filed a counter court application at the Bulawayo High Court seeking an order to evict more than 1,000 villagers at Siansundu to pave way for a new business centre.
The local authority last week filed the papers opposing an application by 1,135 villagers led by their village head, James Mkombe, through their lawyer, Lizwe Jamela of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, seeking nullification of a master plan and allocation of land at Mvundu village in Siansundu.
According to the court papers, Binga RDC is the applicant while Mkombe, Aaron Mdimba, Evelyn Mudenda and Emion Mupande were cited as respondents.
In his founding affidavit, Binga RDC chief executive officer Joshua Muzamba said the piece of land on which they proposed to set up a rural business centre fell under the jurisdiction of the council. “This is an application for the eviction of respondents and those claiming from each one of them a piece of land identifiable as Siansundu Rural Service Centre.
The piece of land is depicted in the diagram prepared by the department of Physical Planning and the area in which the respondents are sought to be removed is within the jurisdiction of Binga RDC,” said Muzamba.
He said the move to relocate the villagers was in line with government policy to bring service to the general rural public, arguing that it was the Siansundu community that made a request to the council in the early 1980s to designate the area as a rural business centre. “The request and several meetings held with the affected community and the traditional and political leaders culminated in the production of a layout plan in 1996 for a rural service centre in Siansundu Ward,” said Muzamba.
He said the layout plan was approved by the department of Physical Planning in 1998.The council, through its lawyers, Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners, said the original residents of Siansundu who were within the area covered by the master plan of the proposed service centre voluntarily relocated from the area.
“According to the plan, the Siansundu centre will service 5,000 people in Siansundu Ward and over 20,000 in surrounding areas like Siachilaba, Saba, Simatelele and Dobola. The centre was established in the public interest and in line with government policy to bring essential service to the community and Binga RDC is simply implementing that policy.”
Binga RDC said the affected villagers will be relocated to an alternative place within the Siansundu Ward with the council ameliorating whatever hardships the respondents will suffer during the relocation exercise.
The council also stated that the graves, community shrines and other essential structures won’t be tampered with during the development of the rural service centre.
“Respondents have no lawful excuse to refuse to be relocated from a piece of land designated as a rural service centre,” said Muzamba.
In his opposing affidavit to the application by the villagers under case number HC740/15, Muzamba argued that Mkombe was the village head, hence he had no authority to represent the villagers. He also disputed that Siansundu had 126 homesteads, saying when they conducted a physical count of the homesteads they were 49.
In March, the villagers represented by Mkombe, Mdimba, Mudenda and Mupande applied at the High Court seeking an order declaring the establishment of the rural service centre unlawful.
They cited Muzamba, the local district administrator, Aaron Mudimba, Matabeleland North provincial administrator, Latiso Dlamini and the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development Ignatius Chombo as respondents.
Jamela said the decision by the local authority to displace the villagers was unlawful and a violation of their basic human rights. He also argued that the villagers inherited the land from their ancestors and it was their birthright.
The villagers accuse Binga RDC of allocating their land to other people for other purposes without consulting them.
The proposed rural service centre which Binga RDC intends to set up would comprise a post office, supermarket, commercial offices and residential stands.
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