|
BY JENNIFER DUBE
A humanitarian crisis is looming after government evicted 80 households from a farm in Mazowe and dumped them by the roadside near Caesar Mine in Mashonaland Central province, where there are no shelter or ablution facilities.
The families, who were forcibly moved from Arnold farm in Mazowe and areas surrounding Manzou Game Park, are staying in the open while their children have since dropped out of school.
The chances of an outbreak of diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid, which recently killed two people in Harare, are high as they use the bush system and fetch water from unprotected sources.
In Chinhoyi, 55 other families are stranded after they were dumped at the Showground following their evictions early this month from Old Citrus Farm, owned by business mogul Phillip Chiyangwa.
Government officials last week barred a charitable organisation from providing assistance to the stranded villagers saying it has to get clearance first.
When The Standard news crew visited those dumped near Caesar mine on Wednesday, the tired-looking villagers were sitting by the roadside while others were sleeping on the grass, waiting for government officials to peg stands for them.
“We have been sleeping in the open since Saturday,” said a woman who preferred anonymity for fear of victimisation. “The rain drenched us last night and we fear that this can happen again for many days if the tents we were promised are not delivered soon.”
She added: “As you can see, we are just in the open with no clean water or toilet, no school for our children and no clinic.”
Each household had just been given a 50kg bag of maize but there was no grinding mill anywhere near.
As a result, most families had nothing to prepare for their families.
Fearing torrential rains, some families were busy putting up temporary shelter using wooden poles and fresh grass cut on the roadside as they could not venture into fenced nearby farms.
Those who had been given stands complained that they were too small. The few that were allocated stands were given 20 x 20 metres stands, too small for a family living in the rural areas.
Mashonaland Central governor, Martin Dinha could not be reached for comment last week.
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development, Ignatious Chombo, who is also Zanu-PF’s secretary for lands and rural resettlement, said the evictions were carried out to resuscitate the game park and Mazowe Dam in light of massive siltation caused by gold panners.
“Those people were illegal elements who were involved in panning and thus destroying the lake for other people.”
Chombo said people from South Africa, Zambia, and the DRC were coming to buy gold in that area, which is now full of open pits.
He said the resettling of the families was done by the district administrator in conjunction with traditional leaders, the police and other government officials as required by the law. Chombo said the government was happy with the way it had handled the re-location of the families.
“This is a good example of a planned movement of people from an unplanned situation to a planned situation because they will be given stands for their homes and kraals, plots for their crops and grazing land,” he said.
Chombo said the evictees must not complain as 80% of them were given offer letters to another place which they rejected because they were immersed in criminal activities in Mazowe.
He said government would soon work on resuscitating the dam and the park.
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
