Source: Court orders Chipanga farm inspection – DailyNews Live
Tendai Kamhungira 20 June 2018
HARARE – The High Court on Monday ordered the inspection of former Zanu PF
youth leader Kudzanai Chipanga’s farm following an ownership wrangle which
has sucked in Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Monica Mutsvangwa.
According to court papers, Chipanga is accusing Mutsvangwa of illegally
grabbing his farm and handing it over to a white farmer.
In the urgent chamber application, Chipanga, who is represented by
Emmanuel Samundombe cited Mutsvangwa, former Local Government deputy
minister Christopher Chingosho, Alias Masuku, Andrew Dawson and James
Chisholm as respondents.
“This is an urgent chamber application seeking in the first instance an
order barring the respondents from forcibly removing the applicant from
Wakefield Farm, Headlands and restoring status quo ante prior to the
events of the 11th of the June 2018 which shall be narrated hereunder and
in the second instance interdicting the respondents, in particular the
fourth and fifth respondents (Dawson and Chisholm)from continuing to
occupy applicant’s farm, which is Wakefield Farm on the instruction and
blessing of the first to third respondents (Mutsvangwa, Chingosho and
Masuku), without lawful right therefore,” Chipanga said in his court
affidavit.
But the High Court ordered the parties involved to visit the property to
ascertain the position on the farm prior to the alleged invasion.
The inspection was done yesterday.
“We went to check on what was the position before the announcement by
Mutsvangwa for Dawson to take over from my client. This was done through a
court directive,” Samundombe said.
The hearing of the matter will continue today.
According to Chipanga, the farm was initially earmarked for Manicaland
State University, which offer was turned down by the Higher and Tertiary
Education ministry.
He said the farm was subsequently allocated to him in August 2016.
“The applicant, since the date of allocation has been in quiet and
undisturbed occupation of the farm. I am advised, which advise I verily
believe to be true and correct that the respondents have no right
whatsoever to evict me from my farm without an order from a competent
court or without following due process.
“I am further advised, which advice I verily believe to be true and
correct that the conduct of the respondents is only befitting in a banana
republic, where the law of the jungle is the order of the day,” Chipanga
said.
He said that he has proved peaceful and undisturbed ownership of the farm
and has also gone further to prove legal ownership of the property.
“I am advised that for me to succeed in such matters, I have to establish
a prima-facie right and that right should be under threat or there is a
reasonable suspicion of the right being violated.
“I submit that from the narration I have made above, it is clear that the
actions of the fourth and fifth respondents are directed at causing grave
and irreparable harm on my undisputed right of occupation of my farm and
only an urgent order of this honourable court can stop this manifest
injustice from continuously being perpetrated against me,” he said.
COMMENTS
His acquiring this farm was through the laws pertaining to a ‘Banana Republic ‘ as he states. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh. stop whinging and get off !!!!!!@\
We Zimbabweans as a nation have gone mad.
Here we have some ex ZANU PF youth leader who was alocated a free farm in 2016 crying foul when someone else is now allocated the very same farm.
He even admits that Zimbabwe is a banana republic where the law of the jungle rules.
Yes we know that, but he was one of the very ones that made it so.
Is it not the same banana republic that gave him the free farm in the first place, by using the law of the jungle?
It is interesting that nowhere in his plea to have the farm back does he mention how he added value to it, provided employment on it or even grew a crop or raised a single beef animal there.
All we seem to get is my farm, my farm, my farm. When everyone knows that it is stolen goods looking for a new owner who will add value to the place.
While I am having a good laugh at the whole situation I am reminded of that old English saying, sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.
What a cry baby! Go and work for your living like the rest of us normal people have had to do.