MATOBO - He trudges across the bridge with exhaustion written all over his face. Clad in his uniform - a blue overall and gumboots - carrying a small paperback, Enerst Dube is going home after another hectic day at work. He is employed at what used to be known as Ovi business
According to an online publication ZIMVEST, Buscod is a chain of supermarkets owned by Dzamu Tebwe. It is popular belief, however, that the supermarkets are owned by Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Moses Mpofu.
Dube is the foreman and one of the more than 50 farm workers recruited by Buscod.
They work tirelessly the whole day from 6am in the morning. No one knows their dismissal times as some of them are seen working even after 7pm. They do various duties – cultivating maize crops, clearing the land, building fowl runs and molding bricks. For their efforts they get $100 per month and teas and lunch on a daily basis. To them, half of a loaf is better than nothing!
The presence of the owners of Buscod in the area is not a welcome move for most of the villagers. Buscod is a stranger -an intruder and an enemy who has come to steal the little grazing that is left.When these people came here, they never introduced themselves. They just came here, surrounded our grazing area with fence and started their activities, says a fuming old man who refuses to be named for fear of victimization.
No one has bothered to give a reasonable explanation and efforts to engage local authorities have been fruitless.
Natisa villagers believe they have been let down by their traditional leaders, especially Chief Malaki Masuku, whom they accuse of being a sellout. Masuku is believed to be compromising his duties as a traditional leader in return for political gains.
This has led to large pieces of land, which used to be grazing, being shared among few individuals in the area – some of whom are not locals. A case in point is Kindman Ndlovu, a businessman from Tsholotsho. Its a shame that our leaders have betrayed us like this for personal interests, said another man, refusing to be named.
The villagers are reluctant to comment on the issue. Their facial expressions reflect fear based on recent experiences still etched in their minds.
Past experiences such as Gukurahundi and the 2008 pre-election violence make them think twice before giving a comment. They insist that their names not be published. Buscod has taken over another natural resource the community valued enormously – a spring. This has been a source of water especially during drought years as it never dries up. The spring supplies more than 50 house-holds during drought years when rivers dry up and boreholes levels are low. For Buscod, the spring and its surrounding area is a good cropping area. However, dangers are that the spring may dry up in the long run due to siltation.
Efforts to let the spring water source area remain owned by the community have hit a brick wall. Furthermore, there is river bank cultivation along Ovi river, which exposes the river to stream bank erosion in the future. Problems with the settlement of Buscod do not end here. A goat belonging to one of the villagers went missing for some days before being found dead and with marks on the body showing that it was beaten to death.
Mgcini Ncube believes Buscod employees had a hand in the death of their goat. I strongly suspect that our goat was killed by these Buscod workers. It went missing for some days and we found it dead near the fence, he said. The Buscod invasion is a daily topic at Natisa. It remains to be seen how the sour relations will for many it is a time bomb as tension mounts with each passing day.
Post published in: News