HOME Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi has reportedly reignited his fight with Beitbridge villagers whom he has been trying to evict without success from Jompembe Block in the district. Richard Muponde Senior Court REPORTER
Mohadi ostensibly wanted to pave way for his son Campbell (Jr) to take over the plots.
The latest move risked the minister and his family a 90-day imprisonment for defying a three-year-old High Court order compelling them to remove a security fence they erected around the villagers’ plots.
They were ordered not to interfere with the villagers’ operations.
This was after four villagers — war veteran Given Mbedzi, Soforia Ndou, Aifheli Nare and Kumbirai Ncube — won a High Court case against the Mohadis over ownership of the land.
However, reports coming from Beitbridge are that the minister has prevented Mbedzi from building structures at his plot, but instead Mohadi’s wife, Tambudzani, brought material and started building on the site.
Mbedzi’s son, MacMillan, yesterday confirmed the latest development, which is reportedly in direct defiance of the judge’s order.
“They are now building a five-roomed house on our plot just next to where my father wanted to build his structures,” he said.
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“Mohadi’s wife is the one who brought the building material to the site.”
Macmillan said the Mohadis’ actions followed the summoning of his father to the minister’s farm, but he refused and instead told Mohadi to come down to his plot.
Efforts to get comment from the minister and his wife were fruitless yesterday as they could not be reached on their mobile phones.
MacMillan said the Mohadis were still in defiance of a High Court order of February 2012, which compelled them to remove the fence they had erected around the villagers’ plots.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha ordered Mohadi, his wife Tambudzani, son Campbell and two of their farm employees to remove their illegal fence from the disputed land with immediate effect and at their own expence.
But the Zanu PF minister’s family defied the order while police, who incidentally fall under Mohadi’s ministry, declined to accompany the Deputy Sheriff to pull down the fence.
