Gwanda villagers tell 'illegal' settlers to go or else...

Villagers from Matshetsheni area of Gwanda under Chief Masuku have given people who illegally settled in their livestock grazing land an ultimatum to vacate the area within seven days or they will remove them by force.

On Saturday more than hundred villagers from Masholomoshe, Magedleni and Dambashoko Villages of Matshetsheni marched to the peoplewho were illegally settled in their grazing lands along the Bulawayo - Gwanda highway and ordered them to pack theirs and leave the area by midnight Friday. The settlers have been 'illegally' occupying the area for the past two years despite being declared as illegal settlers by the Gwanda District Lands Committee.

The settlers, most of them originally from the dry areas of Gwanda South and Mberengwa, illegally occupied the area from 2011 and have been resisting both police and government orders to leave the area and have vowed not to leave and are "prepared for war" with the villagers.

Trouble started last year when the settlers refused to let the people from Matshetsheni bring their livestock for grazing in the grass rich area that has been their traditional grazing area for years.

A man who only wanted to be identified as Zulu and suspected to be the leader of the settlers said that the villagers were "just joking" if they thought their threats are of any matter to them.

"These people are just joking if they think we will take their threats seriously. We are not moving an inch as you can see we are already preparing our fields for the rains. They must just go and find new grazing fields as this is our land and we are not moving," said Zulu in rather poor Ndebele a language predominantly used in the area confirming he was not originally from the area.

Information coming from the Gwanda Lands Office is that the people have been told over and over again to leave the area and they have been ignoring the calls and resisting any instructions to move. It is reported that two self imposed headmen were once arrested for illegally settling the people but were found not guilty by the court as there was not enough evidence to incriminate them with settling the people. The settlers brought to court as witnesses are said to have all claimed not to have been settled by the two.

Last year people from Matshetsheni experienced a huge loss of livestock due to lack of grazing land as the settlers blocked them from bringing their cattle to graze in the area.

One villager identified only as Nyathi from Dambashoko area who was interviewed as he got into a kombi from Gwanda town to his rural home in preparation for the Friday night deadline, warned that the settlers must brace themselves for war on Saturday. He claims to have lost seven beasts last year and only has four left and this year will not allow any of his beasts to die while cattle from "strangers" feast on the grass in their grazing fields.

"I swear with my dead father and his fathers that none of my cattle will die this year while people bring cattle from Mberengwa to come and have Christmas on the grass that our ancestors left for us," said Nyathi.

"Our fathers were moved from Nsindi ranch by the white settlers to this side of the road and were given this land as grazing land, now a new brand of colonisers from Belingwe (Mberengwa) come and recolonise us, khona sizake sibone (we are yet to see that)," vowed Nyathi suspiciously loading a 20 litre can of petrol into the trailer of the kombi.

Efforts to get a comment from the police in Gwanda could not be made before going to press. The Gwanda District Land Officer only identified as Mr Maseko said he was on leave and could not issue a statement nor was he allowed to make any statements on land issues and referred all questions on the issue to the District Administrator who is the District Lands Committee Chairperson and was out of office at the time.