Online Reporter
Lovemore Kadzura
Mutare Bureau
Scores of families evicted from Ngundu Village in Buhera District five months ago remain stranded in makeshift shelters, raising concerns over their safety and welfare as the winter season approaches.
The displaced villagers, who were removed from their homesteads in late 2025 following a land dispute, are currently living in disused Buhera Rural District Council properties such as beer halls and dilapidated houses. With temperatures expected to drop sharply in the coming weeks, residents say conditions are deteriorating rapidly.
Around 100 people were removed from their homesteads by the Messenger of Court following a default High Court order awarded in favour of Sabhuku Marume to evict Sabhuku William Ngundu and some of his subjects from land the former claims is rightfully his.
In an interview, Sabhuku William Ngundu said their survival is now under severe threat as the summer season is over and they no longer have anywhere to find piece jobs. He added that with the impending winter season, they are afraid they will be heavily affected, especially school children.
“We have endured rains, heat and now we are facing winter without proper shelter. Our children are not attending school and this will affect their education. Some affected families were accommodated by fellow villagers sympathetic to them but are now being asked to leave because of the long time they have been housed for free.
“People were surviving on working in other villagers’ fields during the past farming season for some money and they are now stranded since the season has ended. We want to return to our homesteads, which we have been occupying for over 20 years. We endured a lot of expenses constructing the houses and we cannot just be told to leave,” said Sabhuku Ngundu.
Buhera District Development Coordinator Mr Freeman Mavhiza said the Government is finalising efforts to settle the dispute.
“Government is occupied with the matter and a solution is on the way,” he said, before declining to take further questions, stating that the case is now with his superiors.
Last month, the Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Advocate Misheck Mugadza, said his office is working with the Ministry of Lands and Rural Development and the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works — the custodians of the Rural Land Act — to resolve the impasse.
