Judgement reserved in Mohadi land row

told the parties in his chambers that he needed time to go through the submissions made before he could come up with an informed judgment and said it would be out soon.
Addressing the court, Mr Zibusiso Charles Ncube, of Phulu and Ncube Legal Practitioners, said the application before the court sought to restore his clients to the status quo they were in before they were forcibly moved from their plots.
Secondly, Mr Ncube said his clients needed a protection order from Campbell Junior Mohadi, Minister Mohadi’s son, his mother, Senator Tambudzani Mohadi, Danisa Muleya and Samuel Sibanda, who are cited as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th respondents in the urgent chamber application.
It is Mr Ncube’s contention that the application before the court is not about who owns the plots but is about how his clients had been removed from their plots.
He argued that the law does not encourage people to take the law into their own hands. He pointed out that his clients, Given Mbedzi, Sorofia Mbedzi, Aifheli Nare and Kumbirai Ncube needed a protection order because they were subjected to violence by the respondents.
“They were left with no option but to approach this court after they had exhausted all the domestic remedies without any solution. Police were aware of what was happening in the resettlement area but they never took any action,” submitted Mr Ncube.
According to a letter addressed to the President’s Office and dated 4 January 2012, the four applicants state that since mid 2009 they have “been tried and tested” by highly influential politicians (Mr and Mrs Mohadi) who indicated that Plot 1 had been re-allocated to their son Campbell Junior and Plot 2 to their nephew Muleya.
“The same influential powers created unfriendly and unpredictable environments that negatively affect our plots’ activities in that such activities are now carried out with great caution and uncertainty as they instilled a great deal of fear in us,” reads the letter.
They allege that when a report is made to the Beitbridge Rural Zimbabwe Republic Police about the “affairs” involving the said politicians, no “visible or tangible action” is taken against them.
Mr Ncube urged the court to take note of the fact that his clients especially Mr Mbedzi had nowhere to stay since after being released from remand prison he found that his property had been thrown out of his houses. Their crops and livestock were not being tended since he was afraid that he might be harmed, he argued.
In response to Justice Kamocha’s request to see an eviction order, Ms Caroline Mudenda, of Mudenda Attorneys for the respondents argued that there was no need for one since Campbell Junior moved into a vacant plot.
She told the court that Campbell has been in occupation of the plot in dispute since 2009 after it had been discovered that Mr Mbedzi had abandoned it. Ms Mudenda argued that there was no urgency in the application in that her clients took possession of the plot in 2009 after they had been given offer letters and that this is time when the applicants should have approached the court.
She said allegations of violence were speculation as there was nothing to support what the applicants were alleging since they did not file affidavits from people who had been attacked or attached any police reports.
Ms Mudenda had raised points in limine stating that the case was not proper before the High Court and that there were no grounds for citing Senator Mohadi save for the fact that she is Campbell’s mother.
In response, Mr Ncube said Senator Mohadi had been cited as one of the instigators of violence adding that all the respondents played a part in the land dispute.
The four villagers are seeking an order that they be allowed to stay on the land peacefully and they want the respondents to remove all their property and locks they installed at Mr Mbedzi’s plot Number 1 of Lot 9 of Jopembe. Mr Mbedzi wants the respondents to be restrained from interfering with the gates, doors and fence on his plot.
The villagers want the respondents to refrain from, either themselves or, through persons under their control, placing any cattle or other livestock on their plots or from any way interfering with the farming operations they are carrying out on the Plots 1, 2, 3 and 4 of Lot 9 of Jopembe, Beitbridge.
They want the respondents to be ordered at their own expense to pull down a fence they erected on their plots. Members of the police at Beitbridge, they pray, should be authorised, empowered and directed to render all assistance necessary to them to carry out the order.
The applicants, who are facing criminal charges of malicious damage to property, say since their release from remand prison they were now homeless as they had nowhere to go.
They are part of the eight villagers staying on a farm in Beitbridge West, who have a long standing wrangle with Minister Mohadi over some plots adjacent to his farm and were arrested recently for malicious damage to property. They are accused of damaging a door belonging to Campbell Junior.
They have indicated through their lawyers that they are denying the charges and are arguing that the charges are an attempt to force them out of their plots.
Two offer letters were issued to both parties for the same plot. Mr Mbedzi has an offer letter issued in 2003 while Minister Mohadi’s son was issued with a similar letter in 2009.
The Minister’s son was reportedly issued the plot after Mr Mbedzi had allegedly abandoned it.