Matopo so called investment a set back to villagers- analyst

A social and political commentator Bekezela Maduma Fuzwayo has described what Agricultural Rural Development Authority (Arda) and Trek Petrolium regard as investment to Matobo villagers as a serious draw back to the villagers who are losing their homes, farms and grazing land to the [project after the invasion of their land by the Arda.

Fuzwayo said over the weekend he was invited by elders from Zwehamba Village in Matobo South to attend a ceremony where they were conducting a ritual on graves of their forefathers located on land which has been forcibly taken over by ARDA to extend the boundaries of ARDA Maphisa Estate.

"When we sit in our urban homes and read newspapers on this issue we definitely never get to understand the gravity of this matter. People are devastated and angry out there. ARDA and its new investors Trek Petroleum and a South African company have taken away huge hectares of fields and grazing land covering three villages affecting 55 homesteads and over 300 people," he said.

"In taking up the land they have closed off the villagers and their cattle from entering the area. Inside the closed off area are hundreds of graves some up to 80 years old. There is drinking places and grazing land for thousands of livestock which is no longer accessible, there is hectares and hectares of fields that had already been prepared for this planting season."

Fuzwayo said when the land was taken over the villagers were not consulted at all they only saw people accompanied by armed police busy pegging and putting up a new perimeter fencing.

"Graves were destroyed without warning nor regard. When they tried to question that, they were silenced by the armed police and told that the land has been taken away by government as an expansion of the estate using some 1947 boundaries which the villagers know nothing about. Their homes have been spared though most lie within a 500m zone from the estate boundaries which means that its only a temporary arrangement. Some have actually been spared by zigzagging the estate fence around the homes living them within 10 meters of the estate boundary," he said.

"Speaking to these elderly people most of them over 70 years of age, born and bred in the area, and seeing them shed tears and wishing to be dead one can not hold back emotions. It leaves you wonder what kind of a government or authority we have in our hands which can be so brutal to its own people. Most of these old people were arrested last month when they marched to the District Lands Office in Maphisa to try and understand what was happening to their land and they are still attending the court case which is due for trial on the 13th of December 2016. You try to talk to them they are so full of anger and just don't understand why they are being made to go through this whole ordeal."

He said in their small capacity as a group of friends they managed to link these people with Abammeli Human Rights Lawyers who have been working so hard on their case.

"We are also working with the local Senator who also resides in one of the villages affected to try and get these innocent people a reprieve to at least be allowed to use their fields just for this season which they had already prepared for while determination on how the whole land issue will be handled goes on. The task at hand is very huge and needs a lot more of us to come together and work on. We can not have our own black government treat our fathers like this. If we allow this situation to go unchecked in Matobo it will certainly be allowed to go on and find its way into the whole of the country," he said.

"As we watched the elders conduct the ritual there is a clear message of anger from the community. Strong curses are the order of the day on whoever is in charge of this whole process and I would like to reiterate the message of the elders to this person that their tears shall not fall in vein. If this person is human enough and has time to smell his own armpits, its time they take a back seat and think deeply about this action. The whole approach to to the matter by government is extremely wrong and can be best described as being arrogant. Citizens deserve to be treated as human beings not animals. They can not in an independent Zimbabwe be subjected to a treatment worse than what they experienced in the hands of the settlers. In our culture you never touch a grave you don't know and expect everything to go well for you, let alone to go out and wantonly set bulldozers on graves of ancestors of an entire community."

Fuzwayo said the elders have spoken and they have done their deeds their way, the way they know that their ancestors will listen to them and walked without looking back.

"I shudder to think what may befall these young man who are forced to drive bulldozers and tractors on graves they do not know," he said.