Government regularises illegal settlements in Nuanetsi Ranch

occupying the Chisase area of Nuanetsi Ranch near Chiredzi.
The villagers were allocated the land by the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ).
The pegging of the plots paves way for setting up of schools, clinics, roads and other key infrastructure in the area.
The villagers occupied the area in 2000. They have been resisting efforts to relocate them to another area saying they were supposed to benefit from the land reform programme.
Masvingo Governor and Resident Minister Titus Maluleke, yesterday confirmed that Government had started pegging the plots to regularise the occupation of the area by the new farmers.
He said Government had struck an agreement with DTZ that offered some part of the Nuanetsi Ranch to resettle the families.
“We have already started the pegging of the plots at Nuanetsi Ranch after DTZ offered us some land to legally resettle our landless people.
“So work has started and we hope to have completed the pegging of the plots at Chisasa by the end of next month.”
“We are making frantic efforts to regularise the settlement of the illegal settlers so that we can be able to set up key infrastructure such as schools, roads and clinics and we are hopeful that we will beable to complete the task by the end of next month,” he said.
He said Government wanted some of the families being resettled to benefit from irrigation at Chisase that draws water from Tokwe River to feed into Tokwane-Ngundu irrigation scheme.
Governor Maluleke said Government was in the process of identifying land to regularise the resettlement of thousands of people across the province who were illegally occupying farms.
Masvingo province, which technically has run out of resettlement land, has over 5 000 families illegally staying on farms.