WATCH: Ndebele elders angry about their land stolen by the regime

Maphisa villagers' fight for their land against the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (Arda) in Matabeleland South.

"I was born here in 1942. This is my only home and I cannot be expected to start a new life somewhere at my age," Masuku, from Mahetshe village, said, adding "we have no option but to fight eviction by Arda."



Arda has entered into a joint farming project with Trek Petroleum, but villages allege the venture is eating into their grazing, farming and ancestral lands.

The project will see Arda expanding its operations by a further 400 hectares, a development frowned upon by villagers in Zwehamba, Matankeni and Mahetshe villages.

To make matters worse, the villagers claimed Arda has not said anything about compensation.

Robert Mafu (84), a villager at Zwehamba, said: "I have been residing at this place for the past 69 years. I have my homestead, farming and grazing lands here and no other place I can call home.

"We are not just fighting eviction for the sake of it; we are fighting because it is our birthright. We inherited this land from our parents, and likewise, our children and grandchildren should inherit this land as well."

Arda claimed it acquired the disputed land during the Rhodesian era when it was operating as Telcor.

Arda Trek Antelope Estate manager Alec Chinyai denied charges the State entity was grabbing land belonging to villagers.

He said Arda was expanding farming operations within their boundary, contrary to claims by villagers that the estate was expanding into their property.

Instead, Chinyai accused some villagers of allocating themselves pieces of land at the Arda estate.

"The boundary has been in existence since 1930, although pegging was done in 1947. The land was lying idle and what is happening now is that we want to utilise that virgin land," he said.

The Matabeleland Institute for Human Rights accuses Arda of rights violations against villagers' right to agricultural land, freedom from arbitrary eviction, right to dignity, food, water, shelter and life.

"The villagers of Maphisa have a choice: either sit back and be victims of another Rhodesian kind of behaviour of expropriating and dispossessing people's lands without consultation or free, prior and informed consent and compensation; or stand up and peacefully take action to defend their rights and lands from being expropriated using a colonial boundary that was unjustly pegged by a colonial government that did so through gross human rights violations," MIHR general-secretary Benedict Sibasa said in a statement.

A Shona judge from the Bulawayo  High Court judge, Justice Martin Makonese dismissed the villagers' claim saying the villagers must allege and prove the nature of their title to the land.