Land Grabbing allegations against UK-based lawyer shake Victoria Falls area

GREGORY Philip Mabuza, a man who shuttles between United Kingdom and his home city of Victoria Falls has reportedly torched a storm in Monde on the outskirts of the city where he is allegedly grabbing villagers’ land.

Mabuza (51) is originally from Victoria Falls but lives in UK.

Mabuza has been at the Victoria Falls Magistrates’ Courts since 2020 with different cases related to land occupation.

He is a defendant in a civil case filed by Monde village head Mr Stanford Thebe who is seeking Mabuza’s eviction from Mpinami area.

According to the court case, Mabuza illegally settled in Mpinami area between December 2020 and January 2021 without official permission.

The court heard that he unlawfully displaced some occupants who were legally settled in pieces of land and destroyed their property.

In his application to the Civil Court, Mr Thebe said Mabuza refused to vacate claiming the land was his.

In his defence plea, Mabuza submitted that all communal land in Zimbabwe is vested in the President and administered by a Minister responsible for administration of Communal Land Act.

“The plaintif is neither the President nor the Minister and has no locus standi to bring action of eviction. The issue was long resolved in Case CC 68/20 and CC21/20 and now it is Res Judicata (a matter that has been adjudicated by a competent court and therefore may not be pursued further by the same parties),” said Mabuza.

He submitted that a similar case was resolved in September 2020.

Mabuza denied ever illegally occupying land saying he was allocated by the Monde community, a claim local traditional leadership has disputed.

None of the traditional leaders in Monde have records showing Mabuza was given land, Chronicle established, as he is said to be in land disputes with several people in the area.

A group of villagers last Thursday went to the police station to report a case of malicious damage to property after Mabuza allegedly uprooted some poles from some villagers’ homesteads claiming the land was his.

He also allegedly destroyed a fence at village head Mr Thebe’s homestead for the second time after doing the same last year.

This prompted the village head and his subjects, including headman Mpisi to rush to the police to file a report.

It is alleged that he claims he was allocated land by the late Chief Mvuthu, who died more than 10 years ago.

At some point Mabuza reportedly defied a headman orders and refused to appear before Headman Skinner Ndlovu’s court.

Villagers have said they feel harassed by Mabuza.

“Police are investigating while as leaders we are also following up on how he claims he got the land. As traditional leaders, there is no evidence of how he was given the land and all we know is that he was not given by the community but he grabbed it. If he claims he was given by the late chief, there should be a letter to that effect. He is taking State land while lying against leaders,” said Headman Mpisi.

Contacted for comment, Mabuza said his issue was not with the community but the village head Mr Thebe who is married to his cousin.

Mabuza has a fresh malicious damage to property case that is before the Victoria Falls Magistrates’ Courts after he uprooted and burnt down a hut belonging to Mr Christopher Ncube of Monde Village under Chief Mvuthu who he accused of building on his land.

Mr Ncube, employed by Victoria Falls City Council, used poles to build a frame for his hut in November last year and Mabuza allegedly ordered his domestic workers to destroy the structure and burn the material.

The incident happened on November 9, 2023 after Mr Ncube was allocated a piece of land to build his homestead in May by local leaders and it was pegged by an agritex officer.

Mabuza’s workers admitted to burning the poles on his instruction.

Mr Ncube reported the matter to the village head who advised him to report to the police.

The value of the damaged property is US$150.

Mabuza had been summoned to appear in court on Monday 19 August but the case could not get into court as there are investigations to be done.

@ncubeleon