A former Air Force of Zimbabwe staffer, Fanuel Mangezi, has been dragged into a land dispute at Just Right Farm in Mhondoro-Ngezi, where he is allegedly parcelling out farming land for residential purposes in a controversial move that has affected several families.
This publication established that the land allegedly seized illegally by Mangezi spans over 32 hectares, with several residential and farming structures already built, and multiple boreholes drilled.
The development has sparked tension within the community, with some villagers claiming the former soldier never consulted them.
Just Right Farm committee secretary Enock Majinga told Standard People that Mangezi was using his influence as a former Air Force staffer and his position as committee chairperson at the time to seize a piece of land that had been reserved for the construction of Just Right High School and other open spaces.
“Just Right Farm consists of three villages. When we resided there we were 63. When Mangezi came, there was already a committee, which was chaired by Mr Phiri,” Majinga said.
“I was the secretary of the committee. The committee was then changed later, I was not around at that time, but when I came back Mangezi had been ‘appointed’ chairperson.
“There are allegations that Mangezi used to work at the Air force, although people are not sure of his position.
“The people, who were allocated plots in our pieces of land already started building structures, and drilling boreholes.
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“He took advantage of that, and continued to parcel out land. There are more than five victims who lost their land, with each land estimated at around six hectares, totalling to 30 hectares.
“Apart from that, I was also affected as he took more than two hectares from me.”
Majinga added that Mangezi had a close relationship with the district lands officer, which gave him additional support and influence to “forcefully” seize the land, despite the committee’s decisions.
“Mangezi would overrule the committee, and would force other committee members to always respect his decisions,” he said.
“He first illegally took a piece of land which was reserved for Just Right High School, and allocated people.
“During his tenure as the chairperson, he privatised everything. He was close to the lands officer of that time, Joseph Matandire. At that time a lot of people lost their land.”
The five affected victims are said to have proper documents proving ownership of the seized land.
However, the information is reportedly missing from the district office’s database.
“We lodged a complaint with the land office in June, but we were told to give them money for transport,” Majinga said.
“This surely came from the district administrator, because the new lands officer said it is illegal. We were charged US$10 per individual, and we were six.
“I had to take my US$10 back from the village representative who collected the money, since the process took time.”
Majinga said the dispute has lasted for long now and there seems to be no panacea.
“I even reported the issue to the Ministry of Lands’ head office in Harare, but it has not assisted us yet,” he said.
“All these victims have relevant documents, and offer letters.
“However, when we checked for their names at the district office in Kadoma, we could not see their names. I think they were somehow removed.”
Joseph Chikwenhere, one of the victims, said he failed to get assistance from the local lands office, as they could not find any information related to the ownership of the property in their database.
“In 2019, I visited the plot and was shocked to find that a structure (a hut) had been erected on the main field despite another person still residing on our land at that time,” Chikwenhere said
“I reported this to the lands office at Mashayamombe, but to my surprise I was told that my father’s name no longer appeared in their system.
“This was extremely distressing especially because prior to this visit, his name had always been listed as the property owner.
“This land is not only a physical inheritance, but also holds deep sentimental value as the last remaining legacy of my father. I kindly appeal to the Ministry of Lands to assist me in rectifying this matter.”
Contacted for comment, Mhondoro-Ngezi lands officer Rugare Chimbindi said she was supposed to attend to the case last week.
However, her office had no vehicle for transportation, and she is still waiting for one from the district development coordinator’s office.
“We are only aware that the dispute is about land boundaries. We have not attended the case yet. We are supposed to visit the site, but we are facing challenges with transportation vehicles,” Chimbindi said.
“We were supposed to go to the farm last week. Hopefully, we will go there next week if the district development coordinator provides the vehicles as promised.”
Efforts to get a comment from Mangezi were fruitless as he was not answering his phone, which kept on ringing.
