Chikomo, originally from Zaka, had just been left homeless. Her house was torched by the police in a fresh wave of farm evictions – a direct result of Zanu PF’s controversial landslide win last year.
Chikomo failed to save anything from the flames, as she was away at the time, visiting an ailing relative on a neighbouring farm.
Her daughter, Tendai, has also lost everything except the uniform she was wearing to school and a few books she had with her. All her other clothes are now ash.
“This is not fair. Where do I go now? I have no other home. Why now?” asks Chikomo, as tears tumble down.
She is among 300 villagers who were evicted from Hungoidza Farm, about 45 kilometres off the Masvingo-Mutare Road. The reason? Allegedly it was retribution for not supporting President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu party in the July 31 polls last year.
Villagers claim they were being punished for supporting the losing opposition party, the MDC led by former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, when they were beneficiaries of the contentious land reform programme.
Kuitei Makotose, another victim, said armed police demolished their homes while they watched helplessly.
“I do not know whether we are still in Zimbabwe or not. The police came with guns and ordered us out and threw out our belongings. I am now old and I cannot go back to the hilly and rocky area of Bikita where I came from,” he says.
Scores of others who resisted eviction were bundled up in police trucks and detained at Masvingo Central police station.
The evicted families were told that they had invaded a black-owned farm, while others were accused of being a front for former white commercial farmers who were booted off their farms at the height of the violent land grabs.
But the villagers vehemently dismiss the claims by government, saying it was a smokescreen for revenge against people who supported the wrong political party.
“They are hiding behind the excuse that we are working as fronts for whites who were chased away over 10 years ago,” says one villager. “ But how can we farm for them when we only have the small plots that were distributed to us? The actual reason why we’re being punished is that we did not support Zanu (PF) during the election.”
“They accuse us of voting for MDC when we are beneficiaries of the land reform programme,” says another.
Some of the villagers who were evicted towards the end of last year are sleeping by the roadside in makeshift houses made of plastic and branches. They say they have nowhere to go, since they left their original villages more than 10 years ago.
“We are in a desperate situation,” says David Hunduza. “We told our traditional leaders to distribute our land to others, as they were relocated permanently.”
These families are not the only ones faced with such a predicament in Masvingo province. In nearby Chiredzi district, 354 families were evicted from Ruware Ranch in the Chiredzi River Conservancy last November. It had been their home since early 2000. The land-starved families had relocated from Gutu, Chiredzi, Bikita, Zaka and Mwenezi.
They were allegedly evicted by the police and the Messenger of Court after being told that the area had been given to 19 revolutionary party leaders who were controversially awarded 25-year operating licences for the conservancy by the parks and wildlife department last year under the party’s so-called wildlife-based land reform.
Some of the families, who are now destitute, were bundled up in lorries and dumped 40 kilometres away at Manjirenji dam near Checheche business centre. They lost their valuables and livestock.
Provincial affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti denied that the families were evicted as reprisal for not supporting Zanu (PF).
“In all the areas you are talking about, these were Zanu (PF) strongholds. We won in those areas. So how can you say they are being evicted because they supported the MDC-T? It is a lie,” said Bhasikiti, who is also a Zanu (PF) politburo member.
He said those evicted from Ruware Ranch had been reinstated after government realised they had occupation certificates.
But MDC-T provincial secretary Tongai Matutu, the former youth minister in the inclusive government, confirmed receiving reports of evictions from his party members.
“Zanu (PF) is finding faults everywhere to justify retribution. Look at the illegal structures that were demolished in Ruwa, yet it’s the same party that encouraged those people to build those structures there and occupy the farms,” he said.
“Also, the timing is suspicious. Why now, after winning elections? Why not evict the people before elections? But that scar will continue to mark out the party in the next elections, as these people will neither forgive nor forget.”
And for Chikomo, and several other evictees from Masvingo East farms, the only option is to stay put in temporary structures.
“Even if the police burn our homes, we are not going anywhere. They even burnt all my belongings when I was away. It is better to be shot dead, because it makes no difference. I have no option. I came here because I had no land to till,” she says.
The chaos at the farms has since attracted the attention of land and resettlement minister Douglas Mombeshora, who last month rushed to Masvingo for a briefing about the situation.
Mombeshora eventually ordered a land probe into the areas where villagers were being evicted and told the locals, after a meeting with Bhasikiti and top Zanu (PF) officials at the government offices, that his party would return sanity to the Masvingo farms after the inquiry.
Post published in: News