A BEITBRIDGE conservancy owner who has been under siege for years from land invaders, has accused government officials of illegally parcelling out 75 plots to police and prison officers at the prime resort.
STAFF REPORTER
Ian Ferguson said his Denlynian Farm was being parcelled out despite government’s position that no new offer letters were being issued out.
He accused Beitbridge lands officer Mutilisa Moyo of allocating 75 plots at the farm in the Jompembe area in defiance of a High Court Order interdicting the government from settling people at the wildlife sanctuary.
The High Court order also compelled the police to help the Deputy Sheriff to evict illegal settlers from the property, but it has has been ignored, Ferguson said.
Moyo allegedly gave the biggest portion of the land to Erasmus Marena to build a resort.
Ferguson accused the police of supporting illegal settlers after they reportedly refused to escort the Messenger of Court to evict the invaders.
“In fact, the police now refuse to take any reports or statements and our staff are reluctant to make any reports to the police as, on a number of occasions, they themselves are arrested on some trumped-up charges,” he said.
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“On one occasion they were incarcerated in filthy police cells overnight.”
A Cabinet minister has been linked to the invasion amid allegations that he is working with Marena to build a resort and a golf course.
Ferguson says the business has lost more than $250 000 as invaders continued to loot, poach wild animals and vandalising property at the conservancy.
European tourists who were booked at a lodge in the conservancy when it was invaded in October last year, were assaulted by the intruders.
“When one considers that this is occurring in direct defiance of a court order and is being perpetrated by officers of the government with the support of our law enforcement authorities, it highlights the shameful state of our country and the need for this story to be exposed,” Ferguson said yesterday.
The Messenger of Court in Beitbridge has refused to carry out the evictions without a police escort as he said from experience the invaders would just come back.
“He also refused to ask the Deputy Sheriff in Harare to authorise the Deputy Sheriff in Bulawayo to do the evictions as it would be an admission on his part that he couldn’t do his job,” Ferguson added.
Zimbabwe’s tourism industry is struggling to recover the violent farm invasions that rocked the country in 2000. Matabeleland South provincial police spokesperson Philisani Ndebele said he could not comment yesterday as he was not in the office.
