OSISA Director Malunga's Partner Physically Attacked In Farm Row
Zephaniah Dhlamini who is a business partner of OSISA Siphosami Malunga was physically attacked by East 68 Bar & Grill owner Dumisani Madzivanyati, during a farm row.
The farm is owned by Malunga and peers but the state has moved to seize it to reallocate it to other suitors.
Dhlamini was Wednesday allegedly attacked with a log by Madzivanyati, who has invaded the 553-hectare property in Nyamandlovu, Matabeleland North, after its controversial acquisition by the government in December last year.
The two are lecturers at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) – Dhlamini being director of the Applied Genetics Testing Center while Madzivanyati teaches in the business department.
Madzivanyati was also accused of threatening to shoot a man in 2017.
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Malunga condemned the attack on his partner, vowing that the government will have to kill them to take the farm adding that they are making a report to the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) on the assault. Malunga who is a lawyer and human rights defender said:
_We hold Richard Moyo [Matabeleland North provincial minister] and those he is working with criminally liable. We will now have to defend ourselves against physical attacks too._
He said lands officers who were parcelling out their farm had allegedly come with specific instructions from Moyo to target their flourishing produce.
He tweeted alleged pictures of Madzivanyati on the property, saying that the ZANU PF supporter, “who also runs E68 Bar & Grill in Leeside, Bulawayo, whose car you can see parked inside the field attacked Zeph Dhlamini with a log.”
Malunga says the seizure is retribution by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime for his human rights advocacy.
Government, however, argues it acquired the land from a white farmer years ago “for purposes of agriculture resettlement” and that Malunga doesn’t own it.
More: ZimLive
