Village heads engage in illegal land sales at Nuanetsi Ranch

Masvingo Bureau
Some village heads in Mwenezi are reportedly making a killing by illegally selling land at the Nuanetsi Ranch where over 50 families have set up illegal settlements since the beginning of last month. Village heads from Galoni,Mutema, Chauke and Badza are said to be cashing in on land hungry families who are flooding into the Nuanetsi ranch.

This has resulted in the sprouting of illegal settlements around the Chingwizi area where village heads are reportedly demanding cattle and cash for families to be allocated plots in the property owned by the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ).

The illegal land occupation at Nuanetsi has raised fears of land degradation as villagers from as far as Mberengwa, Rutenga and Lundi wantonly cut down trees in the ensuing scramble for land.

Part of the Nuanetsi ranch is earmarked for properly resettling over 2 500 families displaced by flooding in Tokwe-Mukosi Dam.
When The Herald visited the ranch at the weekend, some of the illegal settlers were busy clearing land to build their homes.

Mwenezi District Administrator, Mr Stanley Chamisa, said they were concerned with an influx of illegal settlers who are allocating themselves plots at Nuanetsi.

Mr Chamisa castigated some village heads around the Nuanetsi for exploiting the high hunger for land saying government would flush out all illegal settlers.

“We have received reports that there are some village heads in Mwenezi who are charging land hungry people cattle and money to allocate them plots in the Nuanetsi Ranch and we want to expressly say that this is illegal. We have already held a meeting as the Mwenezi district lands committee where we resolved to have all the illegal settlers flushed out.’’

Mr Chamisa said they have already deployed a team of senior district official to order the illegal settlers out.
There are fears the continued haphazard allocation of land in the Nuanetsi might compromise proposed plans by DTZ through the Zimbabwe Bio-Energy to set up an ethanol plant in the area.

The ethanol plant will benefit relocated Tokwe-Mukosi families expected to be incorporated under the project and venture into cane production as out-growers.

Nuanetsi resident director Mr Charles Madonko, said some of the illegal settlers were killing cattle and poaching wildlife a development he said posed threats to plans to open an ethanol plant.

Mr Madonko also said they were going to approach the Masvingo provincial leadership to stop to the illegal occupation of the Nuanetsi by landless villagers.

DTZ has so far donated over 150 000 hectares to government for resettlement purposes and has, through ZBE, cleared land and drilled boreholes for families who were relocated before flooding in the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam.