THE wrangle over ownership of Centenary Farm in Figtree pitting President Robert Mugabe’s aide Ray Ndhlukula and David Connolly has been set down for hearing at the Supreme Court in Bulawayo on August 3.

BY NQOBILE BHEBHE

Ndhlukula, who is deputy chief secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet, grabbed the farm from Connolly in August last year.
Connolly yesterday querried how the hearing date was arrived at.

“My lawyers have advised me that the case has been set down at the Supreme Court on 3 August.

“I am not aware as to how that date was arrived at as laborious key court processes have not been completed,” Connolly said.

He said his lawyers were set to engage the master of the High Court today. Connolly said he would be back in court in Gwanda on August 17 for a criminal trial related to the occupation of the farm. He is accused of occupying state land illegally.

Ndhlukula displaced Connolly’s 75 workers who refused to work for him and most of them are reportedly now destitute. Some of them had been at the farm since the 1960s. Mugabe’s aide has ignored court orders to leave the farm.

Centenary Farm has a strong connection with ex-Zipra fighters who relied on it for food during the liberation war.

Last year Zipra Veterans’ Trust members demonstrated against Ndhlukula’s presence at the farm. Ndhlukula allegedly owns two other farms — Vlakfontein Farm (Subdivision 2 of Marula Block) and Wilfried Hope Farm, Marula — in the same district.