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Investigations Editor
A 70-year-old widow is fighting eviction from a farm allocated to her in 2001, to pave way for arrested Cottco chief executive officer, Mr Pious Manamike, who was inexplicably issued with an offer letter for the same piece of land two years ago.
Mrs Rose Chinyanda, who was allocated Subdivision 6 of Stockwell Farm in Mazowe, measuring 305ha, some 21 years ago, clashed with Mr Manamike whom she accused of “invading” her farm.
The woman, whose husband died in 2013, had an accident in 2014 that saw her undergoing operations and has spent years wheelchair-bound.
Upon recovery from the injuries, she discovered that efforts were underway to replace her with Mr Manamike. In November last year, Mr Manamike erected structures on the farm and planted maize on about 20ha of land armed with an offer letter. That did not go down well with Mrs Chinyanda, who successfully sued Mr Manamike at the High Court and was granted an interdict, that is an order preventing Mr Manamike moving onto the farm, or doing anything to the farm until the matter was settled.
Justice Philda Muzofa on December 9 last year ordered Mr Manamike to remove his prefabricated and other structures from the farm.
However, a month later, Mrs Chinyanda was served with Government’s notice of intention to withdraw her offer letter for purposes of replanning and to address the double allocation.
The widow, who lost her husband nine years ago, said she managed to send her children to universities from farming activities on the land in question, which is her only source of livelihood.
Mrs Chinyanda appealed to the Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement in a letter dated February 1 this year saying her farm cannot be downsized or subdivided.
The farm, which only has 70ha of arable land, is being fully used and there is no basis for any “replanning” or reallocation of the farm to Mr Manamike.
“I have 115 head of cattle on the farm and going by the recommended cattle rearing ratio of 3ha per head, the farm is already overstocked and any further downsizing of my portion on the farm would make my cattle ranching unviable.
“The chief lands officer and officials from the Land Commission have visited the farm and they have seen the cattle, the cattle pens and paddocks.
“I have invested in an underground irrigation system whose completion and commissioning has been hampered by my long running transformer dispute with Zesa,” she said.
Mrs Chinyanda queried the legitimacy of the process which led to a decision to allocate Mr Manamike her farm. “It would be interesting to find out whether the decision to allocate Mr Manamike the farm in question was reached at a duly constituted and convened meeting of the provincial lands committee with meeting attendees list, minutes, requisite reasons and resolutions thereof having been recorded,” reads part of her letter to the minister.
As part of the fight to defend her land, Mrs Chinyanda wrote to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands as well as the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement seeking help.
She also took the matter to the Zimbabwe Land Commission before approaching the High Court.
Online Reporter