Former ZANU PF Masvingo provincial commissar and Bikita South MP Jeppy Jaboon is challenging the seizure of his 17-hectare farm in Hippo Valley, Chiredzi, by Kudakwashe Mnangagwa, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son.
Jaboon said he was allocated the farm five years ago before it was invaded by a war veteran.
After getting an offer letter for the farm, Jaboon said Mnangagwa called him, informing him that he was now the new owner. Said Jaboon:
I was allocated my farm five years ago, but a war veteran, Romeo Bande, immediately occupied my land.
I later managed to get my offer letter, but before I began farming, I received a letter of cancellation of my offer from the Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Perrance Shiri.
Kudakwashe immediately called to tell me that he is now the new owner. If what they did was legal, why then did he phone me? I have already taken the matter to court in a bid to seek redress.
Meanwhile, Mnangagwa claimed he was allocated the farm after Jaboon refused to take the offer letter, saying the farm was too small for him.
Jaboon becomes the latest former G40 member to lose property to Mnangagwa’s loyalists and family members.
Several former G40 functionaries have already lost farms to alleged Team Lacoste members, the ruling party faction which backed Mnangagwa before the November 2017 military coup.