When elephants fight, the grass suffers
http://www.thezimbabwean.co.uk
Written by Jane Makoni
Sunday, 09 January 2011 13:00
MARONDERA – The wrangle between Marondera Municipality, war veteran Million
and the Marondera Rural District Council over ownership of Danrose Estate
has left more than 1 000 poor people allocated land by Red Cross at the farm
unable to grow crops for subsistence.
With the blessing of the municipality, the Red Cross had allocated land to
the residents benefiting from its monthly $20 food voucher scheme, to grow
farm produce and supplement the handouts. The voucher system was expected to
end last September. The farm is in the peri-urban area and reportedly fell
under the jurisdiction of the urban council.
“In this respect, council has the right to let Red Cross do as it pleased
until such time when the town developed the farm. For someone to claim
ownership of the farm is political mischief which should be stopped. No
individual should deprive poor people of their means of subsistence simply
to score cheap political points,” said a member of council management who
refused to be identified.
Following the allocation of land, the European Union through UNICEF sunk
several boreholes for irrigation. Red Cross later ploughed the plots on
behalf of the beneficiaries and supplied them with seed.
Realizing the plot beneficiaries were ready to sow seed, a war veteran
identified as Million who resides occupied the farm house, claimed Red Cross
had invaded his property and had to leave. He reportedly commandeered the
boreholes and prepared land to his own use. EU officials who intended to
visit the Red Cross project to assess and assist beneficiaries were barred
from accessing the farm.
Million claimed he possessed an offer letter issued by the ministry of
lands, entitling him to some 400 hectares of land at the disputed farm. On
the other hand, neighbouring Marondera Rural District Council, MRDC, headed
by Tendai Gundo, as Chief Executive Officer, claims ownership of the farm.
The council believes the Marondera Municipality had no authority to grant
Red Cross permission to allocate land to its beneficiaries without approval
of the MRDC. The wrangle left poor beneficiaries of the project stranded
without alternative projects to sustain them.
“I had placed hope for livelihood in the Red Cross farm project since I
could supplement my family food reserves from the land. Red Cross monthly
food vouchers could not last my family the whole month. Now that
stakeholders were locked in a protracted dispute over ownership of the farm,
welfare of the poor has been compromised. We could be exposed to serious
famine next year as we failed to work the land in time. Someone from high
offices should please intervene. Million is idly sitting on the land without
any meaningful production. Given that he did not have farming equipment such
as even a hoe, we suspect he is being used by top Zanu (PF) officials to
keep the farm for them,” said one of the Red Cross beneficiaries, Mbuya
Munhondo (78), of Rujeko.
She has been living on the generosity of Red Cross since the early nineties.
Red Cross officials have not lost hope in the fight and are engaging the
district administrator’s office for authority to continue with their
humanitarian efforts..
Recently, Director of the European Commission Humanitarian AID and Civil
Protection for the region, Francois Goemans, urged stakeholders to speedily
find an amicable solution to the farm wrangle as the poor continued to
suffer.
“I hope interested parties and responsible authorities would find a lasting
solution regarding the Red Cross project. It was disappointing for us to be
denied access to a project intended to benefit the less privileged. We
wanted to assess progress at the site and provide assistance where
possible,” said Goemans, at the official handover ceremony of EU Commission
rehabilitated Council Water Works early this month.
Observers believe war veterans and the Zanu (PF)-controlled Marondera Rural
District Council are not keen to stand by while the MDC-T-controlled
Marondera Municipality gains political mileage through issuing of land to
thousands of poor residents.