Veterai Ignores Court Order

Assistant Commissioner Veterai, a leader of a group of squatters comprising green bombers, vowed to continue to occupy the Nesbitt’s farmhouse despite a Magistrate Court ruling Monday and a government appeal for him to leave.
The Zimbabwean heard that an AK 47-wielding Veterai crumpled the court order in his fist after service and threw it into the rubbish bin. He immediately moved into the main house, which the court order sought to bar him from continuing to occupy, and slept on the Nesbitt’s lounge suite.
The Magistrate ruled that Veterai, who moved into the Nesbitt’s main house in January from the cottage he used to occupy, should return into the cottage until such time a competent court can hear the case.
Veterai wants the Nesbitts to cede 40 hectares of the 66ha property and the main house at the farm, including the 8,000 crocodiles which they grew for years. The Nesbitt’s have already ceded two ranches totalling 15,000 hectares in the Chiredzi Conservancy. Government has also seized the family’s 20ha sugar cane plantation. Now Veterai wants to take the only home they remain with.
The courts have now ordered the police to evict the Assistant Commissioner, but the police have refused, saying they fear any action against the armed invader could end in violence.
In the campaign trail ahead of the March 29 general election, President Mugabe has backed the squatters, calling their actions a justified protest against unfair land ownership.