via ZANU PF land grabbers seize ex-minister Mzila’s farm | SW Radio Africa by Nomalanga Moyo on Friday, September 27, 2013

ZANU PF supporters have invaded senior MDC official and ex-cabinet minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu’s farm as the persecution of opposition members persists.

About 30 families are said to have taken over three quarters of Khami Magazine Farm located in Figtree, Matebeleland South, squeezing the former minister of reconciliation on just a quarter of the land.

The invaders, all from Matebeleland North, are said to be wreaking havoc on the farm, stealing and slaughtering livestock and cutting down trees.

Kezi Rural District Council, which allocated the farm to Mzila after 2000, has expressed ignorance over the land grab. However, despite Mzila’s requests to have the invaders evicted, the local authority has done nothing.

Mzila was already leasing the farm from Norwegian company Dynanobel way before the government’s land reform programme started.

Mzila told SW Radio Africa that his investigations reveal that “the occupiers did so at the instigation of ZANU PF people in Matebeleland North.”

“But Kezi council officials as well as Matebeleland South governor Angelina Masuku, say they don’t know how the families come to be on my farm but surprisingly, they won’t evict them.

“My farming activities have been extensively affected, and so far I have lost 16 head of cattle and 30 goats to these people.

“I have reported the matter to the police but no action is being taken, even when I apprehend the poachers or thieves and hand them over to the police,” Mzila added.

Mzila is currently facing a court challenge over allegations that he assaulted two people he caught poaching on his farm.

The former minister denies the accusations, and says he simply apprehended the trespassers. He says the charges against him reflect ongoing attempts by ZANU PF officials to evict him and parcel out the land to its supporters as post-election victory rewards.

Earlier this month, Nyamandhlovu farmer and MDC-T official told SW Radio Africa that he was living in fear after ZANU PF activists entered his property and told him to wind up operations and leave.

The known ZANU PF supporters told Sibindi’s farm manager that the farm, in Matebeleland North, was ZANU PF property and MDC supporters had no claim on the land.

Also this month, MDC-T Mashonaland East official Silent Dube was abducted from his farm in Beatrice as scores of suspected ZANU PF supporters and war vets invaded his Shamrock Farm. He was later dumped at a nearby army barracks.

The farm invaders, estimated to be about 200 people, reportedly arrived in a convoy of 30 vehicles. Dube, a former army officer who purchased the farm in 2004, was allegedly handcuffed and beaten up.

Two weeks about 13 families accused of supporting the MDC-T were reportedly evicted from a farm owned by ZANU PF Minister Nicholas Goche in Shamva.

The MDC-T has slammed the evictions which many say are part of a wider campaign of political retribution against opposition party supports.