adminPatrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
THE Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Bulawayo, Cde Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo, yesterday opened up on her alleged involvement in the civil servants; housing stands scam in Cowdray Park suburb. She fired a salvo at the legal representative of Gamange (Pvt) Ltd who are accusing her of having a hand in the land dispute involving scores of government workers.
Gamange (Pvt) Ltd, through their lawyer Josphat Tshuma of Webb Low and Barry Legal Practitioners, are accusing Cde Moyo of influencing the gazetting of subdivision L of Helenvale Block in favour of Mahlaba Housing Programme (MHP) proprietors.
The matter has spilled into the courts and on Friday, High Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva granted an interim order in favour of Gamange (Pvt) Ltd interdicting MHP from advertising the land as theirs.
A visibly distraught Cde Moyo yesterday said she had no mandate to allocate land to anyone and accused the legal teams of the feuding parties of seeking to tarnish her image. “I don’t run land issues, I coordinate with appropriate ministries. I don’t know where this talk about me is coming from,” she told Chronicle. “My role is very clear, I coordinate ministries. Each and every programme has its own ministry not me. I don’t have a programme except programmes of development in the province.”
Cde Moyo said she was not prepared to answer questions that have “nothing to do with her”, saying they should be taken to relevant ministers.
She said she did not have offer letters to issue to anyone since it was a prerogative of the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Dr Douglas Mombeshora.
“Where do I get offer letters from. . . hah? I don’t do that myself and I don’t have to clear my name to anyone because I know my clear role, finish. I still maintain this is a court issue which has not been completed and I am not supposed to make comments,” said Cde Moyo.
She added: “I don’t do things on my own. That’s why I don’t want to comment, you will put me into issues which I am not involved in. I am not in it, this land wrangle.”
The land in question has already been gazetted for compulsory acquisition by the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement in the government gazette published on June 12. “Notice is hereby given in terms of section 5 (1) of the Land Acquisition Act (Chapter 20:10) that the President intends to acquire compulsorily the land described in the schedule for urban development,” reads part of the notice from the government gazette.
The notice added that any owner or occupier or any other person who has an interest and right in the said land and who wishes to object to the proposed compulsory acquisition or wishes to claim compensation in terms of the Acquisition Act, may lodge the same in writing to Dr Mombeshora.
The piece of land is a subdivision L of Helenvale Block measuring 1,237 hectares.
Granting the interim order on Friday, Justice Takuva gave Dr Mombeshora ample time to regularise the process of compulsorily acquiring the piece of land.
“It is only on the return date of the application that the court will consider whether or not to grant the final relief sought by Appellant (Gamange),” said Justice Takuva.
MHP lawyer Nelson Mashizha of Sachikonye-Ushe Legal Practitioners immediately lodged an appeal against the order to the Supreme Court.
Mashizha told Chronicle in an interview the gazetting of the land sets in motion an irreversible compulsory acquisition of the land in question by the government.
“River Valley Properties are not the land owner but property developer, which is in a strategic partnership with the government in view of the Zim-Asset housing development cluster,” he said.
“So the civil servants who paid for the stands should not worry, they should be rest assured that they will be allocated their stands.”
Online Reporter