Zanu PF chairman defied

Politics
Zanu PF supporters who invaded the Bulawayo City Council owned Mazwi Nature Reserve have vowed to stay put at the sanctuary despite the party insisting it is against the invasion.

Zanu PF supporters who invaded the Bulawayo City Council owned Mazwi Nature Reserve have vowed to stay put at the sanctuary despite the party insisting it is against the invasion.

LUYANDUHLOBO MAKWATI OWN CORRESPONDENT

When a Southern Eye news crew visited the nature reserve on Tuesday, a group of= armed militant activists clad in Zanu PF regalia were milling around the reserve.

Some were armed with knobkerries while others brandished homemade axes.

In a clear sign that the invasion of the city council property was well-orchestrated, a suspected government vehicle was spotted offloading rations at the invaded land.

Several women wearing party robes cooked isitshwala and beans in four big black pots.

The vehicle was later seen ferrying some invaders into the deep interior of the property Southern Eye was told that the leader of the invaders was one Magovanyika and he had gone to the remote parts of the reserve to allocate land to 39 invaders, having already allocated 50 others earlier.

One of the invaders Nathan Mpofu said Zanu PF or no Zanu PF, they would get land because they could not wait for people who had land to start a programme of giving them plots – in apparent reference to Zanu PF Bulawayo provincial chairperson Calistus Ndlovu.

Ndlovu told Southern Eye on Monday that relevant local authorities should take appropriate action against the occupiers of Mazwi Nature Reserve as their actions did not have the support of the party.

“Whether Zanu PF or nor Zanu PF we will get land. We won’t wait for people who own more than two farms to tell us what to do because they are content and they are living well at our own expense,” Mpofu said.

The group vowed to stay put in the reserve. The group said each plot being allocated measured 500m by 30m.

Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo could not shed any details on the land invasion saying he was on leave.

“I cannot say much about the issue. I am currently on leave and I will be back in the office on September 1,” he said on Tuesday.

The council’s legal team is expected to seek a court order to have the invaders evicted.