News / National
ZLHR stops displacement of villagers
15 Dec 2023 at 16:49hrs | Views
MUTARE High Court Judge Justice Isaac Muzenda has ordered Chipinge Rural District Council (CRDC) to stop excavating, constructing roads and pegging residential stands within Maunganidze Communal Lands in Chipinge, Manicaland province.
CRDC had since the end of November 2023 arbitrarily started implementing an urbanisation process in Maunganidze Communal Lands under Chief Mutema in Chipinge in Manicaland province, which would have displaced and affected more than 645 families.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights latest report states that the rollout of the urbanisation process compelled some villagers in Maunganidze Communal Lands to engage Tariro Tazvitya, Peggy Tavagadza and Tatenda Sigauke of ZLHR, who filed an urgent chamber application at Mutare High Court challenging the arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional conduct of CRDC.
In their application, Tazvitya, Tavagadza and Sigauke argued that the villagers, were extremely aggrieved and concerned whether they will retain the full extent of the land that they had been occupying and using, whether they will pay for the land after urbanisation, whether the urbanisation process would accommodate the individual developments, which they had done on the land which they currently occupy and how they were going to survive in an urban set-up since they rely on subsistence farming.
The villagers, whose families have inhabited Maunganidze Communal Lands since time immemorial and have fully developed the areas which they occupy, complained that CRDC had started implementing the urbanisation process of Maunganidze Communal Lands without consulting and engaging them considering that their families have been in occupation of the area for more than 100 years.
Tazvitya, Tavagadza and Sigauke told Justice Muzenda, who on Monday, presided over hearing of the urgent chamber application, that CRDC had deployed excavators into the villagers fields on 27 November 2023, where officials from the local authority began pegging residential stands and constructing roads in their fields.
The human rights lawyers bemoaned that CRDC was turning the villagers' fields into residential stands and roads on the eve of the rainy season, when they were planning to carry out their farming activities especially after receiving some agricultural inputs under a government supported programme.
The lawyers warned that the villagers would be affected by hunger if CRDC is not stopped from conducting the urbanisation process, which would rob them of their valuable ancestral land.
The CRDC's conduct, Tazvitya, Tavagadza and Sigauke said, was arbitrary, unconstitutional and violated the villagers' right to property guaranteed in section 72 of the Constitution, the right to be heard and the right to be informed of decisions which affect them.
On Monday 11 December 2023, Justice Muzenda ordered CRDC to stop interfering with the villagers' livelihoods by halting implementation of the urbanisation process in Maunganidze Communal Lands and instead engage and reach an agreement with the villagers first and file a Deed of Settlement before proceeding with any development of residential stands.
CRDC had since the end of November 2023 arbitrarily started implementing an urbanisation process in Maunganidze Communal Lands under Chief Mutema in Chipinge in Manicaland province, which would have displaced and affected more than 645 families.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights latest report states that the rollout of the urbanisation process compelled some villagers in Maunganidze Communal Lands to engage Tariro Tazvitya, Peggy Tavagadza and Tatenda Sigauke of ZLHR, who filed an urgent chamber application at Mutare High Court challenging the arbitrary, illegal and unconstitutional conduct of CRDC.
In their application, Tazvitya, Tavagadza and Sigauke argued that the villagers, were extremely aggrieved and concerned whether they will retain the full extent of the land that they had been occupying and using, whether they will pay for the land after urbanisation, whether the urbanisation process would accommodate the individual developments, which they had done on the land which they currently occupy and how they were going to survive in an urban set-up since they rely on subsistence farming.
The villagers, whose families have inhabited Maunganidze Communal Lands since time immemorial and have fully developed the areas which they occupy, complained that CRDC had started implementing the urbanisation process of Maunganidze Communal Lands without consulting and engaging them considering that their families have been in occupation of the area for more than 100 years.
The human rights lawyers bemoaned that CRDC was turning the villagers' fields into residential stands and roads on the eve of the rainy season, when they were planning to carry out their farming activities especially after receiving some agricultural inputs under a government supported programme.
The lawyers warned that the villagers would be affected by hunger if CRDC is not stopped from conducting the urbanisation process, which would rob them of their valuable ancestral land.
The CRDC's conduct, Tazvitya, Tavagadza and Sigauke said, was arbitrary, unconstitutional and violated the villagers' right to property guaranteed in section 72 of the Constitution, the right to be heard and the right to be informed of decisions which affect them.
On Monday 11 December 2023, Justice Muzenda ordered CRDC to stop interfering with the villagers' livelihoods by halting implementation of the urbanisation process in Maunganidze Communal Lands and instead engage and reach an agreement with the villagers first and file a Deed of Settlement before proceeding with any development of residential stands.
Source - Byo24News
