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BULAWAYO — Government wants to evict 25 families from Nuanetsi Ranch to make way for Zanu PF-aligned businessman Billy Rautenbach’s biodiesel project.
Rautenbach, who is a close associate of President Robert Mugabe and Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, has effectively taken over the ranch in the Lowveld through his Zimbabwe Bio-Energy (Pvt) Ltd.
The company went into a joint partnership with the Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ), an organisation founded by the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo soon after Independence.
According to a letter from Masvingo governor Titus Maluleke to Lands and Resettlement Minister, Herbert Murerwa, the provincial lands committee on September 9 resolved to remove the farmers “as a matter of urgency”.
“It was agreed that the development coming to Nuanetsi as implemented by the investor, must not be disturbed under any circumstances,” Maluleke said in his letter seen by The Standard.
“The grazers who were occupying the part of the development area which the investor intends to develop into a conservancy must move out immediately to allow the investor to start on the investment programme.”
Maluleke also ordered the eviction of settlers at the Chingwizi area which he said had been set aside for sugar cane production.
“Equally, the settlers that are in the Chingwizi area which is earmarked for cane development must also be moved to the agreed areas for resettlement north of Tokwe River,” he said.
He said those displaced by the project and the construction of Tokwe/Mukorsi Dam would be resettled elsewhere in the province.
But the farmers are resisting the relocation. The 25 families at Nuanetsi Ranch say they risk losing their cattle numbering more than 12 000.
The farmers have also written to Murerwa asking him to block the impending relocation.
“As farmers, our throughput into the beef industry has been substantial. . .The bulk of the meat coming through registered slaughter houses has been coming from our production.
“. . . Regrettably, the future of these farmers is now bleak as we have been given 24-hour notices to vacate Nuanetsi Ranch. Twelve thousand plus breeding stock is now faced with imminent decimation,” reads the letter from the farmers.
They claimed that they were being forced into an area that was unsuitable for cattle ranching.
Murerwa is yet to respond to both letters and efforts to get a comment from the minister and Maluleke were fruitless.
Rautenbach wants to grow sugar cane on 100 000 hectares of land in the ranch for ethanol production.
Other ventures in the pipeline include a giant crocodile-breeding project and cattle ranching.
The $1 billion investment project will displace more than 1 000 families already settled in the Nuanetsi Ranch.
BY NKULULEKO SIBANDA
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