ZAPU and Zipra members have stepped up the fight to claim properties confiscated by the Zanu PF government in the 1980s.
SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
Revelations are that former Zipra members recently appointed a board of directors to run the war veterans’ properties under their company Nitram Investment Holdings and they have started registering them at the same time approaching the government demanding their return.
Zipra Veterans’ Trust chairperson Lwazi Tsheza yesterday said they would not rest until all their properties were returned.
“We have finally appointed a board to run the properties and it has registered positive results so far,” he said.
“This year in May we are going to have our first meeting with the board and hear their report on progress they have made in reacquiring the properties.
“We are looking forward to that meeting to be held on May 4 and the board will report on all properties belonging to us which were taken.”
Tsheza said the meeting would be held at Castle Arms Motel in Bulawayo.
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At independence in 1980, all Zipra ex-combatants contributed Z$50 each towards the purchase of properties which were registered under Nitram Investment Holdings.
Some of those properties include the Castle Arms Motel and Nest Egg building in Bulawayo, Ascot Farm in Solusi, Wood Glen Farm in Nyamandlovu and Hawton Farm in Gweru, where former Midlands governor Cephas Msipa reportedly resettled people from Sogwala.
After people were resettled at Hawton Farm, Zipra veterans were reportedly told they would be given a safari property and to date this has not happened.
Other Zipra properties taken in Harare are the Nijo Farm, Salisbury Motel and many others.
The war veterans say when their farms were taken, they lost 4 000 head of cattle.
They say this would have alleviated poverty among them and their families.
Most of these cattle were reportedly taken from the Ascot Farm. Zipra claims their tractors, chickens and pigs were taken.
The war veterans have repeatedly appealed to President Robert Mugabe for the return of properties, but they said they have not yet got any positive response from the government and the veteran leader.
