Brandon Josphat
CHIEF REPORTER
brandonj@dailynews.co.zw
WAR veterans and farmers in Mashonaland East Province are locked in a bitter dispute with authorities over land they have occupied for nearly two decades but is now slated for seizure.
According to documents seen by the Daily News, Local Government minister Daniel Garwe offered 1 000 hectares of land to business mogul Billy Rautenbach’s company, Marimba Residential Properties Limited, as compensation for 180 hectares of land he lost in Harare.
Title deeds have since been issued for the land at Springs and Stuhm farms in Mashonaland East which were initially allocated to war veterans during the land reform programme in the early 2000s, while Stuhm was divided into residential stands and sold to MPs.
In an interview with the Daily News yesterday, former MDC Alliance MP for Mutasa Central, who is also the secretary for the Stuhm Residents Association, Trevor Saruwaka, asserted their rightful claim to the land, saying that it was part of their entitlements as former lawmakers.
“Obviously, this is something that we were not looking forward to because we believe we have every right to occupy the land that we bought.
“It was not a favour done to us because it was an agreement that we had as part of our working conditions as MPs. “So we paid for the land, we have got legal documents to support our claim, and we don’t see any reason why we should be dispossessed of that land, especially given the circumstances where the people who are getting the land from us don’t have the legal support,” he told the Daily News. Saruwaka added that they would use the courts to fight their eviction.
“It’s wrong to compensate someone with land that is legally occupied by others. I don’t know why anyone would want to compensate them with our land. “They should look for land elsewhere and compensate them. We should not be part of the arrangement, because we have got our land already. “So they cannot compensate someone by creating a problem, rather the government should solve one problem by not creating another one.
So, we are totally against it, and we are fighting this through the courts, and we believe justice is going to prevail,” he further told the Daily News. On his part, son of a late war veteran who owned a piece of land at Springs Farm, Unico Chikomo, said ex-combats could not be evicted on the basis of urbanisation as they have the first right of refusal.
“Rautenbach was allocated two farms, Springs Farm which is cur – rently occupied by war veterans and Stuhm, which was allocated to MPs. “The land was reserved for the war veterans’ quota when the land reform programme was carried out by the government. So, the majority of the people are war veterans. “Rautenbach long back used to approach us saying he wanted to buy us off the farm and we rejected the offer.
“Last year officials from the ministry of Land gave us letters of intention to withdraw our offer let – ters and everyone responded within seven days rejecting the develop – ment by giving various reasons why they cannot evict the farm. The reason they used for evicting us was urbanisation,” he said. Chikomo added they approached the High Court in August 2024 to stop the transfer and the matter is pending yet title deeds have been issued to Rautenbach. “We approached minister of War Veterans Monica Mavhunga since the farm falls under the excombatant quota of the land reform programme. “Mavhunga told Garwe that if the land was meant for urbanisation, war veterans have the first right of refusal since they were contributing to food security.
“Our efforts did not succeed because Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka sent us letters of withdrawals. “We filed an application at the High Court challenging the with – drawal of offer letters which we challenged at the courts. A disgruntled war veteran Mangisai Katsande said what boggled the mind was that Garwe and Masuka were withdrawing their offer letters in contradiction to President Emmer – son Mnangagwa’s call to protect war veterans from land barons
“The withdrawal of offer letters from liberation war veterans at these two farms is just but a tip of an iceberg as more cases are reported with Calgary Farm which is on the boundary of the new smart city in Mt Hampden is under the spotlight — as war veterans who occupied that land in Mazowe district after dislodging the white farmer in 2000 have also received letters of intention to with – draw their offer letters from Masuka two weeks ago,” Katsande said. Garwe and Masuka could not be reached for comment at the time of going to print yesterday.