Lands committee in quandary as villagers resettle themselves

At a meeting attended by Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement Dr Herbert Murerwa and Minister of Environment and Natural Resources Management, Francis Nhema yesterday, the chairperson of the district lands committee, Ms Sithandiwe Ndumo Ncube said the biggest problem that her committee is facing is of people who continue coming into the area.

 

“Pegging and allocation of stands has been done more than thrice but the problem arises in that people do not want to cooperate with the technical team that tries to settle them in an orderly manner.

“There are instances were the team is threatened with violence and this has stalled progress of the programme in this area. We have lived with this problem for too long,” she said.

The chief lands officer for Matabeleland South Province, Mr Romiel Mthimkhulu, confirmed that the technical team was facing challenges but the Member of Parliament for Insiza North Cde Andrew Langa denied that there were threats directed at the technical team.

Governor and Resident Minister for Matabeleland South Angeline Masuku, who was chairing the meeting, decided not to agree with Cde Langa pointing out that she had personally been threatened.

“There are people who have the guts to threaten the Governor, what more with officers? The issue of threats is real and needs to be addressed and looked into so that the problems at Debshan are brought to finality,” she said.
Governor Masuku said some people who were causing problems in the area were coming from other provinces like the

Midlands and said efforts have been made to try and have talks at a higher level but with no fruitful result.

The Deputy President of the Senate, who is also the Senator for Insiza, Cde Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu, said they have tried to resolve some of the problems from the political angle and said more efforts would have to be made to ensure that the issue of orderly resettlement is brought to finality.

The major problem according to speakers at the meeting which was held at the Debshan headquarters, is that the area is now overpopulated with indications that about 265 families do not have land to be resettled on.

This has resulted in some people settling in areas that were never earmarked for resettlement.

Minister Nhema said it was not possible that everyone who moved into Debshan would get a piece of land and called for closer cooperation within all the parties involved in the exercise.

He said if reports of technical teams being threatened were true then there was a need to involve members of the law enforcement agents.

“Cooperation is key to the success of this exercise and politicians should be actively involved, as it would appear some members of the lands committee feel they would have overstepped bounds if they ordered some people off the land.

“There is an urgent need to stop the inflows of people so that a proper settlement plan is adopted. May I appeal to you to preserve this beautiful estate that you have,” said Minister Nhema.

Summing up the meeting, Minister Murerwa said there was an urgent need to complete the resettlement exercise in the area.

“The first step would be to solve the problems on the ground and it has to be noted that without cooperation from all those involved in the exercise then nothing would be achieved.

“It is prudent that the technical team, political leadership in the area, my ministry and other sectors involved in the exercise form a task force whose mandate would be to find solutions to this problem,” said Minister Murerwa.

He promised that his ministry would try where possible to avail funding and staff to assist in the exercise.

There is a need, he said, to move forward with speed as people in the area clearly need to be properly resettled.

“The task force that would be put in place should be mandated to deal with the problem of inflows of new settlers. The issue of who comes from where should be left to the political leadership to deal with.

“Once the planned settlement programme is completed and we see that there is a need for more land, we might have to approach Debshan to avail more land,” said Minister Murerwa.

The Permanent Secretary in his ministry, Mrs Sophia Christina Tsvakwi, said the ministry has in the past assisted in some districts when approached for such help.