adminMidlands Correspondent
More than 2 000 families from Chemagora area in Gokwe, who recently invaded black-owned farms, will soon be homeless again after chiefs in Chirisa area blocked the move by Government to relocate them to Chirisa Game Reserve, an official has said.
Government had earmarked 35 000 hectares of land in Chirisa Game Reserve for the resettlement of Chemagora families and other families from Gokwe North and South.
In an interview, Midlands provincial lands officer, Mr Joseph Shoko, said Government was now in a dilemma after the chiefs successfully objected to the move, demanding that their subjects be given first priority to the land in question.
Mr Shoko said Government was in the process of identifying a new piece of land to resettle the families before the beginning of the 2014-15 summer cropping season.
“The Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement is in the process of identifying another piece of land to resettle Chemagora families who are facing imminent eviction from the farms.
“We had identified Chirisa Game Reserve as a possible alternative but the move was blocked by the chiefs in the area who insisted that their subjects must be given first priority to the land as they have been on the waiting list for long,” he said.
Chemagora families had illegally occupied about 54 000 hectares of black-owned farms in 2006, with some invading as late as early last year and were caught up in a land row which saw their houses being torched by police after the land owners were granted an eviction order by the courts.
The families were last year left homeless after being evicted from the 48 farms and forced to live in makeshift houses by the roadside along Gokwe-Kwekwe highway for close to a month before the Government intervened.
Mr Shoko said the ministry of Lands had approached Environment, Water and Climate Minister, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere to gazette part of the land owned by the Forestry Commission next to Chemagora farm to relocate the families.
“We recently approached Minister Kasukuwere to give us a piece of land in the area owned by the Forestry Commission in Gokwe. We want Government to gazette the land so that the families would be relocated to the area.
“We want the families to be resettled properly before the summer cropping season,” he said.
Online Reporter