Ragtag youths

via Ragtag youths | The Zimbabwean 13 August 2014

“There is this new MP in this constituency. I don’t really know him that well but his name is Chasi. I am told he is very rich. What happened (with the land) is that I applied to take over the conservancy which was being run by some white people. It was underutilised. I applied to run it in order to raise money for my orphanage.

My application was approved. So the illegal settlers who were carrying out mining activities were evicted. Chasi then questioned why these people had been evicted. He said the Mugabes want to take all the land… There were 300 youths sent to harass me. They were digging haphazardly on the property. Two weeks later, the 300 had become 1000,” said Grace.

In a country where the masses silently grit and bear the pain of daily powercuts, joblessness and water shortages, are we meant to believe that a mere deputy minister and some ragtag group of 300 youths would dare harass her?

Grace claims she took over the game reserve for the good of the orphans but she neglected to explain why she evicted a service station owner in the same area. She also does not explain why a 3 storey mansion – believed to be hers – has suddenly popped up on the Mazowe landscape. Is the mansion for the orphans too?