Soldiers to lose land

Dumisani Sibanda Sunday News Correspondent
EIGHT people including three serving Zimbabwe National Army officers, an ex-soldier, a former member of the Air-Force of Zimbabwe, a retired policeman are facing eviction from their plots at Hilda’s Kraal Farm in Umguza, on which they were resettled about 14 years ago, it has been learnt.

The eight are senior army officer, Colonel Sipho Sibanda, other two soldiers, Ms Emelda Dlamini and Mr Stanley Nsingo, a former soldier, Mr Fanitsho Tshuma, Mr Cosmas Ncube who was a member of the Air Force of Zimbabwe, an ex-policeman, Mr Collen Dlamini, a former Bulawayo City Council employee, Mr Leonard Ncube, Mrs Bee Ndlovu-Walker and Ms Prisca Ngulube — from the family of the late Boy Nyoni were allocated the pieces of land under the Land Reform Programme in 2002.

This process was regularised by then Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement (now Lands and Rural Resettlement) on 28 November, 2006 through offer letters. However, Mr Herbert Ncube has been fighting for ownership of the lands since December 2012 which has now spilled into the courts. Mr Ncube reportedly gave up his farm — which he bought before the resettlement programme — to take up a conservancy in the Gwaai area under the land reform programme. He had to give up his farm to avoid being a multiple farm owner which is against the resettlement laws.

In his sworn statement dated 28 February 2013 and deposited with the Bulawayo High Court (HC 401/13) Mr Ncube admits that: “it is true that I was allocated a piece of land under the Land Reform Programme with the understanding that the said farm was a conservancy carrying a 99-year lease which is not the case now as the Ministry of Lands is now guilty of breach of contract in that they reduced the lifespan of the lease from 99 years to 25 years.” He now wants his land back.

But one of the affected eight farmers wrote to the Matabeleland North Lands Committee chairman, Cde Cain Mathema, who is also the Minister of Provincial Affairs for Matabeleland North, about two weeks ago, highlighting their plight.

In the letter he said it is not the fault of his group that they find themselves in this situation as it was reportedly caused by Mr Ncube himself.

“It would be grossly unjust for lawfully resettled farmers in us to be punished for what Mr Ncube describes as administrative incompatibilities between the policies exercised by the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement with regards leases and Mr Ncube’s expectations with the farmers in us have nothing to do with. It is as if the Ministry erroneously designated a piece of land belonging to an indigenous Zimbabwean. Quite the contrary, this was not so for Hilda’s Kraal. Mr Ncube offered this piece of land to Government for resettlement on his own accord because he sought fortunes with conservancies.”

The latest development that has unnerved the eight plot-holders was a visit on Friday, 11 March 2016 by police officers from Ticehurst Base near the farm who notified the group that Mr Ncube had approached them and furnished them with a court order dated 27 February 2014, which the plotholders say they had never had sight of and a Certificate of No Present Interest issued on 10 February this year which require them to leave the farm.

“Notably the new order cites two respondents namely the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement as well as the Registrar of Deeds (less we the parties also concerned by the contents),” wrote the plot-holder in the letter to Cde Mathema.

“Quite strikingly this order was issued a few days: after rescission of the eviction order and is based on a court process held on February 7, 2014 in the chambers of High Court Judge Lawrence Kamocha.”

He wrote that they were querying why the court order was “denied us during and immediately after the court proceedings of February 10, 2014 if the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement was party to the proceedings as purported.”

The plotholder said they could not understand why Government issued a Certificate of No Present Interest in Hilda’s Kraal Farm when the ministry officials “fully know we are resettled on the piece of land”.

He stated in the letter that evicting them would have dire social-economic consequences.

“Precisely, the affected farmers include war veterans, retirees and a widow all of whose life savings have been invested on the resettlement programme with the full belief, individually and collectively, that land reform is irreversible,” stated the plot-holder.

The case by the plotholders who are opposing their eviction is still being handled by the Bulawayo High Court.