Chief suspends village head over illegal communal land deals

Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
BEITBRIDGE paramount Chief Tshitaudze’s traditional court has suspended a village head for six months for illegally parcelling out communal land in Matshiloni, about 40km north of Beitbridge town along Masvingo road.

Chief Tshitaudze (David Mbedzi) said they dragged Village Head Moses Matoro Ndou, who falls under Headman Foromela, to court following numerous allegations against him.

In addition to the six months suspension, the traditional court had also fined him five beasts.

“We received reports from villagers about his illegal land deals and we summoned him to the traditional court where he confessed to illegally allocating 16 people land without any village meeting or offer letters from the Rural District Council,” said Chief Tshitaudze.

“Initially, he tried to play hide and seek, but we sent a team on the ground to investigate and he later confessed everything, saying his brother was the one bringing his own people to the village.”

The chief said the village head had initially lied that there were 127 homesteads in his area, but the investigating team discovered that there were 159 allocated stands on the ground.

Chief Tshitaudze said they had also resolved to summon to his court all those that had started building properties on the illegally allocated land.

“It is very unfortunate that the village head disrespected other traditional leaders until I called him to order. I want to strongly warn village heads and villagers that as community leaders, we will not tolerate the selling and illegal allocation of communal land. The days of those involved in this illegality are numbered,” said Chief Tshitaudze.