Zvoma evicts 6 families

Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma yesterday evicted six families occupying part of Plot 4 of Kilworth Farm where he already owns the larger part of the resettled property adjacent to Kintyre Estates near Norton along Harare-Bulawayo Road.

FELUNA NLEYA

The six families occupied five hectares each while Zvoma reportedly owns 244 hectares of Kilworth farm.

One of the farmers Jeriphanos Mugaviri (63) said they had been evicted from the farm they were allocated almost 10 years ago and did not know how they were going to spend the night.

When NewsDay crew visited at the farm, Mugaviri’s property and that of other families had been dumped by the roadside by the Messenger of Court.

“This has been done by Clerk of Parliament (Zvoma) and now we have been left in the open,” Mugaviri charged.

“I was at work when I received a call that a Messenger of Court was here to evict us and he also took my fridge. I am an ex-detainee and my only benefit is this five hectares of land I got, but now that small benefit is what I am now being deprived of. I have a family and where will we sleep when we have nowhere to go?”

Mugaviri said he was surprised at being evicted as the issue was still pending before the courts with a hearing expected to take place in the Supreme Court tomorrow.

Mugaviri’s wife, Farai Musina (56) said she was not shown the court order by the Messenger of Court who went on to remove their property.

“When the Messenger of Court got here I was not around, I was at the clinic that is when I came and found him removing our property and he had put it outside already,” Musina said.

Another farmer Evidence Murapiro, who was also evicted said: “I have been staying here for the last three years and now I do not know what to do and where to go with my children.
“This is so disturbing and my children will be disturbed with what has happened, sleeping out in the cold.”

Zanu PF Nharira Hills vice-district chairperson Israel Kawanzaruwa said it came to him as a shock that another black person would evict his countryman when they all got the land for free.

“This is embarrassing that it is happening in Mashonaland West,” Kawanzaruwa said.

“How does a black person evict a black person? There is no one who is more important than the other, we are all Zimbabweans and this is our land and we have to share. If we were able to work with the white farmer who was here how can he not live together with us as Zimbabweans? We all got this land for free, no one paid for land so how does one then have the power to chase others from the farm?”

According to court documents, Zvoma obtained an eviction order in April this year where the families were supposed to have been evicted by May 2.

Mugaviri said he contested the eviction and the matter had been set down for tomorrow.

Yesterday, Zvoma confirmed the eviction saying all was above board. “I am not in the country right now, but I know about the eviction,” Zvoma said. “Those are illegal settlers who have been staying there. We went to the courts and they lost. I got an eviction order against them.”