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Arnold Mutemi Features Editor
WHEN Dick Kufazvineyi was allocated a piece of land at Lochard Farm in Insiza district in 2011, it was the realisation of a life-long dream to have his own rural home.

Kufazvineyi wasted no time in developing the new home. He invested heavily on the A1 plot, building a modern seven-roomed brick-under-tile house with tiled floors.

Some of the building material for the house was shipped in from Johannesburg, South Africa, at great expense while the bulk was bought in Bulawayo more than 60km away.

Neighbouring villagers refer to his house with maroon tiles as Mahatshula, after the medium density suburb in Bulawayo. Kufazvineyi’s house would not be out of place if it were possible to uproot it and transplant it in Mahatshula.

But in a sad twist of events, Kufazvineyi’s “Mahatshula” is in danger of being reduced to rubble if he does not move out of Lochard Farm by July 31 after being declared an illegal settler.

Kufazvineyi is one of the 2,000 villagers on Lochard Farm set to be ejected from the farm if authorities go ahead with a threat to demolish houses belonging to “illegal settlers” should they fail to meet the deadline. The district lands committee has ordered all people who settled on a section of the farm known as Chalet Village over the past 10 years to vacate, leaving only original settlers.

“Original” settlers are those allocated land at the onset of the land reform programme in 2000.

Authorities, it appears, turned a blind eye to the “illegal settlers” for about a decade and allowed them to develop their plots, giving them a false sense of security.

The push to move out the people is being led by Chief Jahana, who alleges that most of the resettled villagers bought land from unscrupulous village heads and councillors.

The majority of villagers labelled as illegal settlers started moving onto the property after 2012 when they were given land by the local leadership.

The chief alleges that the new settlers paid varying amounts to be allocated land, ranging from $600 to $1,000 while others parted with beasts.

Since moving into the area, the new villagers have spent a fortune developing their properties.

A number of stylish houses which can rival many in urban areas have sprouted in the village with some built by owners working in South Africa, keen to develop their rural homes into a retreat when they are back home.

At one homestead, the unidentified owner is set to lose an investment worth more than $3,000 after installing a borehole.

Kufazvineyi, who reckons he pumped more than $56,000 in developing his homestead, says as a Zimbabwean, he was entitled to land in any part of the country.

Kufazvineyi is originally from Masvingo, but has business interests in Bulawayo.

He said he was allocated the land by a local councillor and everything was above board.

For Nokulunga Nkomo, whose mother-in-law got her a stand in the resettlement area, it is now a waiting game as the clock ticks to the July 31 deadline.

Nkomo, who was based in South Africa, decided to come home and develop a place to call her own on the farm.

Like other settlers, she invested heavily putting up a hut and a perimeter fence on her stand. She estimates more than $2,000 went into the project.

She does not know what the future holds for her should authorities go ahead with their threat to evict them.

She too claims that her mother-in-law was given the stand by a local councillor and believed everything was above board when she started developing the stand. No money exchanged hands, she insists.

Nkomo relocated to the area in 2013.

“The most painful part is the July 31 deadline. I’ve nowhere to go, and I’ve no money to build a new home. Our prayer is that President Mugabe will learn of our plight and step in,” she said.

Nkomo said having her own homestead had allowed her to be weaned from staying with her husband’s parents, a necessary rite of passage for all young couples, who desire to set up their own home.

The district land committee claims that most of the targeted villagers had built their homesteads on land meant for grazing.

But the villagers feel the farm has enough land to accommodate both “original” and new settlers together with their livestock.

Nkomo, who hails from Ndwangu Line in Filabusi, said if mistakes were made in resettling them, the government should regularise their stay instead of taking the harsh decision of evicting them.

She admits that there were some people who built homesteads in unsuitable areas such as under high voltage power lines and these needed to be relocated.

A villager, who did not want to be named, said it was sad that a chief, who was supposed to protect his subjects, was spearheading their removal from the area.

He said it would have been better if the Jahana chieftainship had remained in Gokwe than come and cause suffering in Insiza.

Chief Jahana’s predecessors were moved from Insiza to Gokwe in 1965 by the colonial regime to make way for white commercial farmers.

Chief Jahana’s late father took his people back to their ancestral home in 2008 to reclaim their land before his death in 2012.

“We’re now regretting why he came back,” said the villager.

Another villager said removing the people after the investment they made on their plots would be insensitive.

He said many villagers had spent their life savings to build homes in the area.

“Families are now settled in this area and to uproot them after so many years would cause untold economic, emotional, physical and social suffering.”

Kufazvineyi said he was not going anyway despite the ultimatum.

“I’m not even thinking of moving. I’ll wait for them to come and remove me,” he said.

He alleged it was the chief, and not the government, who was pushing for their ouster.

“It’s not a government issue. It’s the chief who wants to move us out,” he said.

Sibusisiwe Ngwenya’s life has come to a standstill because of the impending eviction. She no longer has the will power to maintain her homestead, which is now overgrown with tall dry grass.

“I’m no longer able to maintain my homestead because of the deadline,” she said.

Michael Maseko said he will leave everything to fate. Originally from Gwanda, Maseko spent most of his life working in Bulawayo. He believes that all people with homes on the farm can live in harmony.

“We’re being evicted by the chief because they’re saying we settled on grazing land, but there’s a lot of land which can actually accommodate more families. They just want us to move for no reason,” he said.

Despite his belief that there was enough land for everybody, Maseko is ready to be evicted.

“I’ve given up hope and I’m just waiting to be evicted.”

The leader of a technical team set up to restore order to the farm, Daniel Mpofu, said “illegal settlers” had caused massive overcrowding on the property.

He said the farm had a carrying capacity of 1,056 families but 3,866 households were now on the farm.

“There’s a surplus of 2,800 families. It’s not good. This is affecting grazing land and fields,” he claimed.

Mpofu, who is also the chairman of the Insiza Rural District Council, said there was no sympathy for the illegal settlers because they knew they were doing wrong when they moved onto the property.

Houses, like Kufazvineyi’s, despite their value, were not supposed to be there, he insisted.

“An illegal investment is illegal despite its value,” he said of the posh houses built on the farm which face imminent destruction.

Mpofu said the programme he was leading was driven by the government and he did not have a personal agenda against the illegal settlers.

“I’m not running the programme. I’m just the leader of the technical team on the ground. The team was set up to clean the illegal settlement. There’ll be no extension of the deadline.”

But villagers accused Mpofu, a former CID detective and brother to the late MDC Bulawayo councillor Charles Mpofu, of being arrogant and trying to cause public disaffection with the Zanu-PF government.

One said: “He comes to meetings and declares that, ‘I’m not here to answer questions but to tell you’. He is arrogant. His brother was MDC and there’s growing perception on the ground that he’s playing politics with the land reform to cause people to lose faith in Zanu-PF, which championed land reform.”

Mpofu, who was once arrested for poaching, told villagers not to listen to their Zanu-PF MP Cde Andrew Langa, claiming he had “no power”. Cde Langa was suspended by the party for two years, although he remains MP for Insiza North and Sports Minister.

Yesterday, Cde Langa told The Chronicle that removing the villagers — who have built a dam from their personal contributions — would be unfortunate.

He noted that some children were born at the farm and attending nearby schools and removing the settlers would disrupt the children’s lives.

Langa is of the belief that after staying on the farm for more than eight years, the families should be allowed to remain while only those with houses on prohibited places such as wetlands should be relocated.

“Where do they go after 12 years of staying on the farm? Whoever made this decision is being unfair because the people have been on the farm for a very long time,” said Cde Langa.

The villagers say they had asked the local leadership to invite Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko to open the dam — but they now suspect he was stopped from coming through bad advice.