Cde Andrew Langa

Mashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
THE Bulawayo High Court has blocked Insiza Rural District Council from evicting families settled on Lochard Farm who had been declared illegal settlers by the local authority.

One hundred and seventeen villagers who are part of about 2,000 villagers under Chief Ndumiso Jahana Khumalo approached the court after they were told to vacate by July 31 the place they had called home for more than 10 years.

A provisional order granted by the court on Wednesday bars the Insiza RDC’s chief executive officer, Insiza district administrator, Matabeleland South provincial administrator, Chief Jahana Khumalo as well as the Ministers of Lands and Rural Settlement and Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development from evicting the villagers.

Lands Minister Douglas Mombeshora was cited in his capacity as the minister who deals with issues of resettlement on all state land while Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere was held liable by virtue of his ministry being responsible for the administration of local government structures.

Shem Mathe and 116 others are the applicants in the matter.

Justice Lawrence Kamocha interdicted Insiza RDC from demolishing any of the homesteads belonging to the affected families.

“The respondents are barred from demolishing any of the homesteads built by the applicants on the stands allocated to them by Insiza RDC or any other allocating authority, otherwise other than in accordance with the law,” said Kamocha.

“The respondents are also barred from evicting the applicants from their homesteads in any manner unless authorised in accordance with the law.”

The applicants, who are being represented by lawyers Dube-Tachiona and Tsvangirai Legal Practitioners, said they have been resident on the farm for periods ranging between two and 12 years.

Said Mathe in an affidavit: “I aver that in 2013, the Insiza RDC though its chief executive officer documented our occupancy of the stands on which we were resettled and upon which we built out homesteads. We made payments to the council and issued with receipts and certificates of occupancy.”

He said since the beginning of the month, Chief Jahana Khumalo acting with Insiza RDC’s CEO, DA and PA and some council workers, convened a series of meetings at different villages during which they accused the applicants of buying the stands from unnamed corrupt Zanu-PF officials.

“They demanded that we admit that we bought the stands from unnamed Zanu-PF people. We never bought the stands, but we were resettled just like any other resettled Zimbabwean under the land reform programme,” he said.

Mathe accused Chief Jahana Khumalo of mobilising villagers who were resettled earlier than them to denounce those who came later.

“We deny these allegations and insist that if Chief Jahana Khumalo knows of any Zanu-PF official who received money from us, he must expose that person rather than force us to point fingers at anyone,” he argued.

The families said the move by the respondents to evict them was an infringement of their constitutional right to land.

The villagers said despite demand, the respondents failed to give reasons in writing for their conduct.

Mathe said they had been forced to approach the High Court for recourse after they heard Chief Jahana Khumalo on radio accusing them of fraudulently buying the land and declaring that they should vacate the farm by not later than July 31.

“We’ve a right to peaceful occupation of our homesteads and can’t be forced to vacate or demolish them without a court order,” argued Mathe.

Insiza North MP Cde Andrew Langa has waded into the dispute. Two weeks ago, he told The Chronicle he was engaging higher offices to block the impending eviction of families settled on the farm.

Cde Langa said Zanu-PF would never allow the forced removal of people from the land and he would discuss the issue with Minister Mombeshora.

“I’m strongly engaging my counterpart in government and also higher offices. Zanu-PF will not accept this,” Cde Langa, who is also the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, said.

He said Insiza North constituency was largely a former white commercial farming area. A few farms were set aside for resettlement soon after independence in 1980, while the majority were only turned into resettlement areas during the fast track land reform programme of 2000. Cde Langa said families which faced eviction have been paying unit tax to the local authority for some time. He accused a so-called “technical committee” pushing for the removal of villagers from the farm of being bogus.

Insiza Rural District Council chairman Daniel Mpofu claims to chair the committee. Cde Langa said oddly, no representatives from government departments sat in the committee.

Mpofu insisted that the families would be kicked out on July 31 because there were 2,000 more families than the property could carry. He accused most of the targeted settlers of having bought land illegally.