Mushohwe in messy land row

BY PATIENCE NYANGOVE/SIMBARASHE MANHANGO MANICALAND governor Christopher Mushohwe is embroiled in messy battle for the control of a farm near his Beverly Estate (formerly Kondozi) with a newly resettled farmer. Mushohwe is a former director at State House and also administers President Robert Mugabe’s foreign university scholarship scheme. According to documents obtained by The Standard  last week, the Nyamugure family was on June 6 told to vacate its Wallacdale Farm in Odzi following Mushohwe’s instructions. The farm is adjacent to Mushohwe’s Kondozi Farm, which was seized from the De Klerk family at the height of the controversial land reform progamme and has since been run down. Emmanuel Nyambuya, the lawyer for the Nyamugure family said Mushohwe has since ordered the disconnection of electricity to their farm as well as blocking movement of vehicles going in or out of the homestead. Nyambuya accused the resident minister of being greedy and abusing his authority to evict the Nyamugures. “The governor has taken the law into his own hands and he is merely doing this out of greedy,” he said in one of the letters in possession of The Standard. “According to my client, Mushohwe is not really interested in the land considering that he already has vast acres of it already, some not even being utilised but he wants the mining equipment there.” Nyambuya also accused Mushohwe of allegedly hiring hooligans to intimidate the Nyamugures into abandoning their home. “In the first instance it was brought to our attention that the governor sends a gang of hooligans who continuously threatened our clients to vacate the land, something that is inhuman and not expected from a man of his statue,” he added. “It is from this man that our clients expect to be assisted and whom they believe can lead by example but contrary to this, it seems as if the shepherd has turned away from his sheep and actually wants to attack.” The lawyer accuses the governor of conniving with officials from the Ministry of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement   in an effort to evict his clients. “We also had a lengthy discussion with the lands officer, whom we think is conniving with the governor and he had vowed to give another piece of land to our clients where they could relocate  but that agreement hasn’t been met, in fact before fulfilling it he went on to report the matter to the police to have our clients arrested,” Nyambuya said. Meanwhile, the chief lands officer only identified as C Tom on July 1 wrote to the officer in charge of Odzi Police Station claiming the Nyamugure family was resisting orders to leave the farm although they did not have an offer letter. On July 1 2011, the chief lands officer alleges that the Nyamugure family was continuing to occupy the land illegally without any form of a valid offer letter, permit or lease. He said repeated verbal notices to vacate by the current beneficiary MR CC Mushohwe had not been heeded by the Nyamugure family. Tom recommended that the family must be charged and evicted from the property immediately.