On May 31, Assistant Inspector Monyera, together with police officers and four apparent beneficiaries of the farm, travelled to Nyamandhlovu to take terminate work there and take possession of the land.
They rounded up all the staff and told them that they were no longer to work on the farm otherwise they would be arrested. They then proceeded to switch off the electricity supply to the entire farm and told the staff it was to remain cut off until Godfrey presented himself to the police in Nyamandhlovu.
In February 2009 Godfrey and Chris Jarrett (who had actually been evicted from his Nyamandhlovu property in 2002) were arrested and jailed overnight by Hwanges Chief Superintendent Francis Matsika for transgressing the same Act. In spite of much political pressure the Regional Prosecutor in Bulawayo declined to prosecute. Matsika has been sued for wrongful arrest.
On that occasion Matsika let slip that the two were arrested for having joined with Mike Campbell in the SADC Tribunal.
At the farm, switching off the electricity supply negatively impacted thousands of chickens, hundreds of head of cattle, the vast majority of them belonging to those settled on the Greaves farms, and some sheep in pens. The animals had no access to water. Additionally 35 settler homesteads are also waterless. All the cattle are provided with water at a trough served by the farm irrigation pumps. They belong to the occupants of five villages on the farms. Locals are incensed by the development and plan to meet in order to discuss a plan of action.
Post published in: News