via Mugabe loyalists in messy land rows | SW Radio Africa by Mthulisi Mathuthu on Thursday, March 27, 2014
The chaotic nature of the land grab exercise is yet again being illustrated with prominent loyalists of President Robert Mugabe reportedly fighting over land in two separate incidents.
Reports this week said ZANU PF Mashonaland West chairperson, Themba Mliswa, is fighting to take over a Norton farm from its owner in defiance of a court order. In Mashonaland Central, deputy chief secretary to the President and Cabinet, Justin Mupamhanga, is involved in a messy fight with his three neighbors over a Bindura farm.
Pieter Nel has approached the High Court seeking an order barring Mliswa from taking over Kingsdale Farm and allocating it to illegal settlers. In 2013 the Constitutional Court ruled that the government had illegally acquired the farm. As a result 1,500 families settled there were rendered homeless, but it was later agreed between government and Nel, that the settlers would buy their allocated pieces of land. However, Mliswa chipped in threatening to seize the property on behalf of the settlers.
From Bindura, reports are that Mupamhanga and his three neighbors are fighting over boundaries to pieces of land which were allocated to them within the Argyle farm. So messy was the fight that officials from the president’s office, land ministry and the police moved in to identify the boundaries. But according to Mupamhanga’s High Court application, Douglas Dhliwayo, Blessing Dombojena and Saul Gomwe are ‘defiantly refusing to move out of the partitions of land they were illegally occupying.’
Economic analyst Masimba Kuchera said the development on the farmlands was not surprising because chaos was inherent in the land grab exercise. He said: ‘The genesis of the land reform exercise was chaotic and opaque; so these continued conflicts and corruption are natural consequences. Just as it is not the first time to hear this it is bound to continue for a long time.’
Kuchera said the chaos on the farms shows that ZANU PF has not abandoned its disregard for the rule of law, property rights and the economy as whole. He said continued wrangles meant that there would no production and the economy would suffer more.
He added: ‘The essence of the land reform was not production but possession and patronage and so these fights speak to that. These people are concerned about what they own and not what they produce.’
Mliswa and Mupamhanga’s cases follow yet another land saga in which the First Family has evicted a group of families from a stretch of land in Mazowe, allegedly to establish a game park. The developments also come at a time when ZANU PF zealots are calling for more land grabs under the pretext of economic empowerment.
COMMENTS
The thieves are fighting amongst themselves, poetic justice!!
Only a matter of time really wasn’t it??
The land-grabbers “are concerned about what they own and not what they produce.” What a brilliant observation by the author!! And it’s a sad story for Zim.
The land-grabbers “are concerned about what they own and not what they produce. The land grabbers do not own anything, the land is still owned by the original farmers, not one case has ever been constitionaly overturned, despite the collapse of the judicial system. Having said this, what difference does it make now, 90% of the land taken over in the land invasions is now lying idle, this is fact is the sole reason for the collapse of the Zimbabwean currency and the final collapse of the macro economy (IMF – March 2014) – whoever runs this country better realize that with out commercial agriculture there will never be an economy in Zimbabwe.. mining has never been the mainstay of the economy, it was commercial agriculture and its related industry that was the pillar. Unskilled,weekend, cell phone businessmen will never achieve the agricultural production levels attained in 1999 in Zimbabwe.
Everyone knows its not about land …..it’s all about greed and the childish urge to show wealth. And, of course, trying to squash any form of opposition. For sure, the title deeds are still in the hands of the original owners. And there they will stay until such time compensation for theft has been paid. In the meantime the so called new farmers have no collateral to borrow money with. Tough tackie!