Fresh land Invasions in Matabeleland

There is a new land invasion in Matabeleland, this time by the government of Mnangagwa and Zanu PF. This program is spearheaded by the district Lands office in Filabusi. On the 8th of February 2019, Mthwakazi Republic Party President and his leadership, in the company of local headmen, went to the Lands office in Filabusi to deliver a letter from the lawyers, seeking clarity on the eviction of villagers from Hilton Farm. The team was confronted by the worst arrogance by a visibly drunk Mr Ronald Ncube who refused to accept the correspondence from the lawyers. The officer, who introduced himself as a land technician, referred the villagers to Gwanda, although the eviction letter was from Filabusi. The eviction letters had no government stamp to confirm authenticity.

The rude officer eventually accepted the letter but refused to sign a confirmation of receipt. He also refused to provide the delegation, with the telephone numbers for the Provincial office in Gwanda. He even tried to have members of the President's office to intimidate the delegation.

The MRP delegation also met with the local Chief, Vezi Maduna who gave assurance that no one would be evicted in his area of jurisdiction and gave us the latitude to assist the affected villagers, by whatever means possible. The villagers complained bitterly about the untouchable sitting MP, Farai Taruvinga, who has brought misery upon them after making false promises before his election. When the villagers approached him on the issue of evictions he simply told them to vacate their places.
As MRP we reiterate that the custodians of OUR LAND are chiefs and headmen, not this Gukurahundi government of Zanu PF.  Any eviction notice in Matabeleland is expected to carry the signature of our traditional leadership. The said eviction letters we signed by a Musengi, hence we remind this government of ZANU, that confrontation to Smith government was aggravated by the issue of land, and we are not going to watch our land being transferred from the whites to the Shona people.

It is clear that Matabeleland is under serious attack from Perence Shiri and his gang. We believe that he was given leadership of the ministry of Lands owing to his experience in dealing with the people of Matabeleland during the Gukurahundi. Our people are being removed from their land to pave way for land thieves from Mashonaland.

It is so hurting that most of the people who are being evicted from their land are former Zipra freedom fighters. They fought for this land under ZAPU, not to surrender it to ZANU PF, but to enjoy its fruits, but today they are at the mercy of ZANU and Mashonaland leaders.

We gather that more of the villagers in Nsiza have been served with eviction notices. We believe that these evictions are fake and we encourage the people of Matabeleland to unite and refuse to be bullied on their own land. We invite Chiefs and headmen to resist the tribal intentions of this murderous and genocidal regime.

During our visit to the Lands office in Filabusi we discovered a template form that is already signed for photocopying by R .J Chitsiko, the Secretary for Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement. This form proved to us that these evictions are not from the national office, but districts have been given authority to haphazardly evict whoever they target for any reason.

The most interesting character of these evictions is that they only happen in Matabeleland. People are farming peacefully in Mashonaland. We warn this Mashonaland government to halt its Gukurahundism now or we will fight until death.

Hands of our people. This is our land, for which our fathers and forefathers died for.

SISONKE Sibambene Singu Mthwakazi Sizokulungisa

For Peace and Justice in Our Lifetime

N Ngwenya
MRP Information and Publicity Department