Mugabes own Arnold Farm

Source: Mugabes own Arnold Farm – DailyNews Live

Tendai Kamhungira      21 April 2017

HARARE – A court case in which a Mazowe couple is accused of criminal
trespass and assaulting a cop has confirmed that President Robert Mugabe
and his family have interests in Arnold Farm, and are behind the
villagers’ eviction from the property.

For over a year, speculation has been rife that the Mugabes were behind
the torment the villagers have been subjected to, but the case against
Tapiwa Dhaisi, 39, and Sinikiwe Mazivei, 32, has eventually confirmed it.

According to court papers, the complainant in the first count of criminal
trespass is James Teta, who resides at Zimbabwe Republic Police, Chikurubi
depot.

“On the 7th day of April 2017, the accused persons unlawfully refused a
lawful excuse to leave the land when called upon to do so by a lawful
occupier at Arnold Farm, which is owned by the first family,” reads part
of the court papers.

The State claims that the two acted unlawfully.

It is alleged that the criminal trespass emanate from an order that was
given by the police officers for the pair to leave their homestead at
Arnold Farm.

When Teta and his workmate only identified as constable Tongovona arrived
at Dhaisi and Mazivei’s home, they found the two in the company of their
children.

The court heard that Dhaisi later attacked the police officers using
stones, in facts forming the second count.

“One of the stone hit assistant inspector Teta on the forehead and the
other one on the back. Sinikiwe Mazivei joined his husband Tapiwa Dhaisi
to resist by throwing stones to assistant inspector Teta and constable
Tongovona,” the court heard.

The two, who appeared before a Bindura magistrate yesterday, are
represented by Moses Donsa Nkomo from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human
Rights (ZLHR).

The residents in the area have since won a High Court order barring the
police from evicting them, after detailing how they have been ruthlessly
treated.

The residents claimed the police forced them into their trucks and dumped
them some 35-40 kilometres in the bush along the Mvurwi road.

“The villagers are just dumped in the open, without food, water or
shelter. Our crops and livestock is left at Arnold Farm, our children are
still at the schools they were attending since 2000 when we resettled at
the farm and now their education is being disrupted,” the villagers told
the court then.

According to the residents, they have been staying at the farm over the
past 17 years, before heavily armed police officers and officials from the
Lands ministry began demolishing their homes recently without a court
order.

The villagers argued that the arbitrary eviction contravened their rights
provided for in the Constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy,
administrative justice and the right to property.

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