MORE than 70 families, who illegally occupied Farm 27 in Chemagora area in Gokwe, were on Tuesday forcefully evicted by armed police, who razed some of their huts to the ground.
Blessed Mhlanga
The families, who occupied the farm at the height of the land reform programme, have been left homeless and are now camped by the roadside in the open with children who have failed to return to school.
Village headman, Webster Madobi, also part of the evicted illegal settlers, said they were bitter police were moving in to evict them less, than a month after they voted for Zanu PF.
“We feel used because these politicians have known that for the past eight years this farm has been our only home. They came here soliciting for our votes and even had a polling station on this farm, but now we are being evicted,” he said. Madobi said he had moved with his people into the farm following pronouncements by President Robert Mugabe that all Zimbabweans should have access to land.
“Nobody gave us this land. We moved in with our families and settled here after President Mugabe told us that all Zimbabweans should have land,” he continued. The evictions were on the strength of a November 2012. Magistrates’ Court order granted to farm owner, Farai Magadzire, who accused the families of illegally occupying his land. According to papers at the Kwekwe Magistrates’ Courts, the villagers had resisted eviction.
“They threatened to burn the deputy sheriff’s vehicle before he was forced to retreat together with police officers, who had accompanied him,” part of the court papers reads.
“The settlers jeered at them as they retreated.”
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Armed police then returned and arrested 24 of the settlers, who have since appeared in court, facing trespassing and contempt of court charges. Provincial magistrate, Taurai Manwere, on Wednesday found the 24 guilty of trespassing and building illegal structures on the farm allocated to Farai Magadzire and fined them $100 each.
John Fire Gumbo (72), an ex-political detainee, who was evicted from the farm and also fined by the courts, said he was angry that after voting Zanu PF and having suffered at the hands of the white settler regime, he was being rendered homeless.
“This is the height of betrayal of the land reform programme. We voted Zanu PF because they made a promise that everyone should have access to land, but now we are being thrown out and being forced to stay in the open like animals,” he said.
