adminThe Rhodesia Herald,
July 22, 1971
THE Government is to prosecute the multiracial Nyafaru Development Company in the Inyanga district for allowing members of the Tangwena tribe to occupy land on its Nyafaru Farm, said a spokesman for the company.
The farm, which has a majority of African directors, is situated on European land in terms of the Land Tenure Act.
The only European directors of the company are Mr and Mrs Guy Clutton-Brock, who are outside the country.
Mr Clutton-Brock had his Rhodesian citizenship withdrawn earlier this year, and was subsequently deported.
The director of prosecution has informed the solicitors of Nyafaru, Messrs Scanlen and Holdeness, that by allowing 23 African women to occupy land “within the European area at Nyafaru Farm”, the company had contravened section 11 (2) (B) (3) of the Land Tenure Act.
This is the second time within six months that the company has been brought to court for allegedly infringing the Land Tenure Act.
Last February, it was acquitted on a charge of allowing the self-styled chief of Tangwena, Rekayi Tangwena, to stay on the farm.
Only one director of the company, Mr Moven Mahachi a former member of the now banned Cold Comfort Farm Society, will appear on behalf of the company in the Umtali Provincial Magistrate’s Court on August 5.
LESSONS FOR TODAY
• The land issue was at the centre of the late Chief Rekayi Tangwena’s rebellion against white settlers, and he is among the first indigenous people to try and reoccupy land that belonged to his people.
• Apart from land, the Tangwena people and others across the country, lost their livestock to whites through a variety of colonial laws.
• Chief Tangwena’s actions, resulted in him being Ian Smith’s public enemy number one.
• A number of whites also suffered at the hands of the Smith regime for being sympathetic to the black people’s cause. They included members of the clergy and ordinary citizens.
• Chief Rekayi Tangwena, Cde Moven Mahachi and Guy Clutton-Brock are all national heroes, whose remains are interred at the National Heroes shrine.
• Questions remain whether Chief Tangwena’s subjects ever got back their land after Independence and also following the land reform programme of the new millennium.
• The experiences of the Tangwena people should form part of the school curriculum so that generation-upon-generation, understands why land was a central issue in the liberation struggle.
Online Reporter