Members of the Zanu PF Mashonaland East provincial leadership have ordered farmers to remain on land designated for residential use, a further setback for the party’s incarcerated central committee member and former deputy minister of finance Terence Mukupe.
In order to establish the housing development at Mt. Olympus Chishawasha B Farm, Mukupe was in the process of evicting about forty Goromonzi farmers.
The majority of the A1 farmers have government offer letters and have been residing at the farm for more than 20 years. However, on Saturday of last week, a powerful Zanu PF team headed by provincial chairperson and Minister of National Housing and Social Amenities Daniel Garwe visited the region and instructed the farmers to stay on the portion of land.
“The Zanu PF party is for the people, you the people you are the party. We are here armed with a document that says you are not going anywhere.
“This is your land and we are saying, you belong here. We have informed even the police on the latest position, so fear not,” Garwe told the farmers.
Garwe also told a Zanu PF provincial coordinating committee meeting in Marondera yesterday that the Local Government ministry had cancelled the offer letter given to Mukupe.
The banker was recently sentenced to three years in jail after being convicted of smuggling fuel into the country, evading paying taxes in the process.
The former Harare East legislator through his company Farmtel claims that he was allocated the farm in 2016 by the Local Government and Public Works ministry.
Mukupe has been struggling to evict the farmers since 2019.
Source HarareLive
