Dozens of families whose homes were demolished at Willdale Farm in Zvimba East have attributed their predicament to alleged corruption by government officials and Zanu PF local leaders, which they say is delaying their relocation.
The families have been stranded for over a week and most of them are without food, shelter or toilets.
Many now sleep in the open along the Harare–Chirundu Highway and use nearby bushes as toilets.
The evictions, carried out in the early hours of last Friday, targeted residents of the informal and peri-urban settlements in Zvimba East, many of whom had lived in the area since the land reform exercise in 2000.
Their household items including mattresses, pots, beds, wardrobes, and clothes bundled into trucks, and dumped along the Harare–Chirundu Highway in the middle of the rainy season without food, water or any form of shelter.
The Standard gathered that the evicted families are going to be relocated to Nyabira Farm for temporary shelter.
Zvimba East Member of Parliament (MP), Kudakwashe Mananzva, confirmed that assistance was being provided by the Zvimba Rural District Council and the Civil Protection Unit.
“Efforts to drill boreholes are underway to provide clean water for the displaced families,” Mananzva told the media.
- Lobby group bemoans impact of graft on women
- Corruption watch: Rogue cops: Blame it on the bosses
- DJ Ladyg2 fights stereotype in showbiz
- Corruption watch: Who is benefitting from the Pomona sham deal?
Keep Reading
However, the affected residents accused politicians and officials of sidelining genuine victims while sneaking in their relatives and politically connected individuals onto the relocation lists.
Charity Semwayo, who is among the first group to be evicted, said those being moved to Nyabira are not the real victims.
“The disturbing issue is that those being relocated are not genuine victims of the mass evictions, but people being smuggled in by politicians,” she said.
Another affected resident, Mavis Muroyiwa, echoed the same sentiment, accusing officials of manipulating the lists to benefit outsiders.
“Names were written, but no help is coming,” Muroyiwa said.
“We see people we don’t even know being moved to the new site.
“There is corruption in the whole exercise.
“Those with children and the elderly are being left out.”
Hunger is now the biggest threat, the affected residents said.
Elderly resident Joseph Jimu said many were without food.
“We are starving,” he said.
“The little food we had is finished.
“Even if they relocate us now, we will die of hunger.”
Zanu PF local leader in Mt Hampden, Wonder Sigauke, who is also part of the evicted group said the situation was dire.
“There is no shelter and no food. Children and women are suffering the most,” Sigauke said.
Many families say they lost birth certificates, national identity cards and other critical documents during raids by the messenger of court assisted by police, who allegedly denied them time to remove belongings.
A mother of four, Tarisai Chatsamwa, said she was now stuck with nowhere as she could not replace her children’s identity documents.
“I lost my identity documents and the birth certificates of all my children,” Chatsamwa said.
“We appeal to the Registrar-General’s Office to come here and help us.”
A visit to the site revealed a sorry site where women have lost their privacy, forced to bathe in the open at night, while children living along the highway and facing the constant danger of being hit by vehicles.
Zvimba district development coordinator who is the district Civil Protection Unit (COU) chairperson, Joseph Manyurapasi, acknowledged irregularities in the planned relocation exercise.
“In situations like this, chancers try to benefit at the expense of genuine victims,” Manyurapasi said.
“As a stop-gap measure, our team compiles lists with the help of local leadership.”
Manyurapasi said they were still to ascertain the total number of people affected, but said so far they have recorded about 600 people at the new site at Landscape in Nyabira about 20 kilometres from Mt Hampden.
Hesaid they tried to talk sense to Willdale management to no avail despite promises that people will not be evicted during this rain season.
Mananzva said the farm changed hands around 2000 from white owners to black owners, but the workers remained on the property since most of them were not paid their terminal benefits.
He estimated the number of the affected to be more than 5 000.
“The total number of the affected is around 5000 from three different locations on the same farm” Mananzva said.
“It’s devastating to see children and mothers in the open without food and shelter.”
A former Zanu PF district coordinating committee official, Solomon Nasho, condemned the evictions which he said had created a humanitarian crisis.
“In our view, their eviction is political, driven by people who do not want to see Zanu PF winning Zvimba East in the next elections,” Nasho said.
“We appeal to President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s intervention."
Efforts to get comment from Willdale management were fruitless as their landline went unanswered
The eviction of settlers from Willdale Farm is said to be meant to pave the way for the development of the Zim Cyber City project, a multi-million-dollar initiative.
However, the lack of clear communication from the government had left many residents anxious about their future.
The affected villagers joined thousands others who have been victims of arbitrary evictions across the country, drawing criticism from human rights watchdogs.
In November last year, the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) stepped in to represent villagers who were being arrested and getting them prosecuted for allegedly occupying gazetted land without lawful authority.
In some instances, judicial officers convicted the villagers and ordered them to move from their ancestral land.
The ZLHR challenged their eviction as an infringement of their right to freedom from arbitrary eviction as guaranteed in section 74 of the Constitution.
“The insensitive and callous eviction of people against clear constitutional provisions that protect against arbitrary eviction stamps from both the local and central government’s intention to continue violating their constitutionally protected rights and commit rights abuse excesses with impunity,” the ZLHR said in a statement.
“It is worrisome that both the central and local governments have dismally failed to follow the dictates of the law in executing evictions.
“ZLHR does not support lawlessness in occupying land, however, forced evictions have the effect of stripping affected families which include women, people with disabilities and children, of their constitutional right to freedom from arbitrary eviction and dignity and cause loss of livelihoods, life, and property and, in turn, impact basic social, economic, cultural, political and civil rights of several people.”
The ZLHR said the heartless evictions and displacements amount to inhuman and degrading treatment of citizens in contravention of guarantees contained in the constitution and regional and international instruments to which Zimbabwe is a state party.
“It is prudent for both the local and central government to invest efforts and resources in creating a stable, safe and just society, which places people at the centre of development plans and commits to advancing social development including uplifting marginalised communities rather than perpetuating injustice,” the ZLHR said.
“Local and central government should wherever possible prevent people from constructing houses in undesignated areas than to wait for them to finish constructing and then demolish properties without following the due process of law.”
