adminLeonard Ncube Senior Court Reporter
BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha has summoned an official from the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement to explain a land dispute between a businessman and A1 resettled farmers.
The businessman Lemman Munenekwa who is also a public relations manager of a Bulawayo company, is locked in a land dispute with 120 farmers who were allocated more than 12,000 hectares at Woodlands Farm near Victoria Falls town in 2001.
Munenekwa is allegedly leasing 100 hectares of land, part of which is the Elephant Camp and the land is on Woodlands Farm which the 120 farmers claim was allocated to them.
The land was allegedly allocated to Munenekwa by the Hwange District Lands Officer Misheck Marandu.
Munenekwa now seeks to evict the farmers claiming he has been paying $5,000 per annum rentals starting 2010 to run until next year.
Munenekwa has since filed documents with the High Court seeking an eviction order against Ward 1 Councillor, Elias Mzamba, being the vice chairman of the board in the area, Fanisile Nkomo, Philani Weza, Mxolisi Nkomo, State Weza and Nkosilathi Ngwenya who he said represent the entire community.
Justice Kamocha last week ordered Marandu to appear before him tomorrow to explain the land wrangle.
“Marandu should be called in to testify. He is the one who caused this. He knows these people. He gave them land and knows they are there and he should clarify whether Elephant Camp is not part of the 12,000 hectares. We are here because of him, he works in the lands office and he should tell us how he did the allocations,” said Justice Kamocha while assigning Christopher Dube-Banda, of Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners to subpoena Marandu.
Dube-Banda is representing Munenekwa.
In his founding affidavit, Munenekwa claims he has documents from the Ministry.
“I was allocated Hunting Camp measuring 100 hectares on a five-year lease worth $5,000 per annum in rentals but I have been prevented from utilising the land by actions of the defendants,” said Munenekwa.
On the other hand, the defendants led by Clr Mzamba and represented by Advocate Lucas Nkomo argue that 120 farmers were allocated Woodlands Farm under the A1 scheme in 2001 and they reserved a portion of it for hunting and leased it to a company called Horizons which has since moved out.
Marandu is alleged to have then leased out the land to Munenekwa claiming it was now vacant despite the fact that Woodlands community were the beneficiaries.
When Horizons moved out, it is said, there was a court order for it to repair the camp which had been vandalised but Marandu allegedly advertised it and gave it to Munenekwa before the order could be effected.
The community argues that the officials from the Lands and Rural Resettlement Ministry were wrong in leasing the portion of land which belongs to them.
“Villagers built a five-star camp which was opened by former governor Sithokozile Mathuthu and they wanted to renovate the area. The camp was left unused to allow a corridor for animals and they are building infrastructure using proceeds from the area. Munenekwa should vacate the area,” argued Clr Mzamba in court.
According to documents in court, a meeting was held where officials from the Lands Ministry admitted having made an error and wrote a correspondence on January 23, 2012 to the effect that the land would not be given to anyone else, but Marandu went on to lease it out.
The lease given to Munenekwa runs from June 1, 2010 to May 31, 2015 and there is an option of renewing it with a three months notice.
The farmers reserved the area for hunting and photographic safari but Munenekwa’s lease stipulates that he can use it for agriculture and residential purposes only.
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