Zanu-PF land grabbers face jail term

ZANU-PF youths in Manicaland will face legal action if they proceed with their planned move to illegally grab pieces of council land in Mutare, mayor Tatenda Nhamarare has said.

Last week, Zanu-PF Manicaland youth provincial chairman Mubuso Chinguno told hundreds of party supporters in Mutare to "help themselves" to council land, accusing the Nhamarare-led council of defying the government's directive to give party youths land for residential purposes.

But Nhamarare yesterday hit back, saying they were not going to allow another group of illegal settlers occupying land.

"They should follow proper procedures, we will take legal action on unlawful grabbing of land. Already we are facing challenges to evict illegal settlers who have settled themselves in Chikanga and it's a potential health disaster," he said.

"Then you find out that there is another group of people trying to occupy land that is not serviced, we are not going to allow that at all."

President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF has been accused by opposition parties of parcelling out land to its supporters, describing this a political gimmick to woo voters ahead of the 2018 elections.

Nhamarare, however, said Mutare was running out of land for residential stands and that they were waiting for the Local Government ministry's master plan to expand the city.

But Chinguno last week said: "There is vacant land in Dangamvura and Chikanga. We are going to take it upon ourselves to grab the land because Mutare City Council is not responding positively. They will come and regularise the stands after we have settled there, we can't wait for the laid-down procedures, it's taking long."

Chinguno added that the main opposition MDC-T dominated council was throwing spanners in their projects, threatening to take the law into their own hands if council fails to avail land for the youths.