MARONDERA-SVOSVE - Zanu (PF) youths who recently grabbed grazing fields and farming plots belonging to suspected MDC supporters at village 17 here, are indiscriminately cutting down trees for sale, threatening the environment.The youths, who are not interested in farming, were hiring chain saws and cutting down trees at an alarming rate. The wood is being sold to newly resettled A2 farmers in Muzunze.
The youths were destroying the environment with the blessing of the local Zanu (PF) political leadership led by party district chairperson, Athony Jera, and ward 22 Councillor Mutizwa Huni. Affected former forests now resemble deserts as trees
were cut in truck loads every day, said a disturbed elderly villager.
Marondera Rural District Council, which has jurisdiction over the area, reportedly failed to rein in the culprits.
The Environmental Management Authority, EMA, prosecutes people caught cutting down trees without authority. Criminals can be fined up to US$300 per tree felled.
Post published in: News