Governor to order Chiwewe’s eviction
April 22, 2010
By Owen Chikari
MASVINGO – Masvingo governor Titus Maluleke says he will instruct the police to evict his predecessor, Willard Chiwewe accused of seizing a farm from another family.
Former Masvingo governor and Resident Minister Chiwewe has refused to vacate Ganyani Farm, a year after he was served with an eviction order by the provincial lands committee.
Chiwewe grabbed the farm during his tenure as governor.
The Masvingo provincial lands committee chaired by Maluleke last year ordered Chiwewe’s eviction saying he had taken a farm belonging to a fellow indigenous Zimbabwean, which was against the government policy.
However, the order was not carried out.
A visit to the farm, located about 25 kilometres east of Masvingo city, revealed that Chiwewe was still farming on the property. His cattle and workers were still on the property.
However Maluleke expressed shock after he heard that the former governor was still on the property.
“I am shocked to hear that he is still on the farm,” said Maluleke. “We ordered him to move last year and gave him an alternative piece of land in Mwenezi.
“I am going to verify if he is still on the farm and I will instruct the police to evict him.”
The Ganyani family has also settled on the same property and is battling to have the former governor evicted.
A visibly angry member of the family, who refused to be named, this week told The Daily News online that the former Resident Minister was refusing to leave the farm.
“We have tried our level best to evict him but to no avail,” said the spokesman for the Ganyani family.
“He was served with an eviction letter last year but is still refusing to go. I tried sometime to chase away his workers but they resisted
“We are appealing even to the President to intervene so that we start production on the farm which was bought by our parents in the 1960s.”
Chiwewe has more than 80 herd of cattle on the farm . He also produces vegetables, wheat and maize among other things.
This week, a defiant Chiwewe said he would not leave the property because he had an offer letter from the government.
He said he was prepared to name and shame senior Zanu-PF officials who owned multiple farms owners but had not been evicted.
“I am not leaving,” said Chiwewe. “It is political, because how do you evict me when several other government officials within Zanu-PF have more that three farms each?
“I am prepared to go to court and I will name a shame those who abused the land reform programme.”
Several Zanu-PF sympathisers and senior party officials grabbed vast pieces of land under the controversial land reform programme.
Some of them have more that three farms which is against the government policy that one man should have one farm.