Chegutu, Zimbabwe — Nick Mangwana, Government spokesman in Zimbabwe has moved in to evict resettled black farmers in order to take over the farm in Chegutu, a Zimbabwean farming town in the country’s Mashonaland West Province about 100 kilometers west of the capital Harare.
In fact, on March 21, the Southern African nation’s information tsar stormed the farm with a gun which one of his victims at the farm said was deliberately exposed in a bid to scare him.
Now, Mangwana has enlisted the services of his brother Paul’s law firm to quicken the eviction of 70 families resettled on the farm he grabbed from the black resettled farmers.
Paul Mangwana is the governing Zimbabwe Africa National Union Patriotic-Front’s secretary for legal affairs.
Over two decades ago, Zimbabwe embarked upon chaotic land seizures of white-owned farms, leaving more than 4000 commercial white farmers displaced from their land.
The indigenous farmers at the farm grabbed by Mangwana said they occupied the land during the time the government spokesman was in the diaspora during the reign of former President Robert Mugabe.
But Mangwana, who says he was allocated 102 hectares of the sprawling 2,000-hectare farm last November, showed up with an offer letter in January this year ordering the villagers, who settled on the farm six years ago, to “harvest their crops and leave.”
As such, his lawyers from Mangwana & Partners Legal Practitioners have served the resettled farmers with a five-day-notice to tear down their homes and vacate Thorndike Farm seized by Mangwana.
“Our client is intent on fully utilizing the farm in accordance with his offer letter, but cannot attend to the same on account of your unlawful occupation and utilization of the farm without his consent and or authority,” an eviction letter from Mangwana’s attorneys read.
“We are, therefore, instructed to demand as we hereby do that you vacate our client’s land within five days of receipt of this demand.”
“You are further required to take down structures you have erected and remove any and all your belongings thereon,” the lawyers added.
But the villagers on the farm grabbed by Mangwana have dared to challenge him, saying they occupied the farm when Mangwana was still based in the United Kingdom and applied for formalized settlement between 2014 and 2016.
However, the villagers said their applications have not been granted yet nor have they been rejected.
The 2000-hectare farm was once owned by late resettled farmer Gilford Rukawo who had signed up for a voluntary farm downsizing scheme which saw him retain about 800 hectares, leaving the remainder with the other villagers who have faced the boot from Mangwana.