A land dispute between Mashonaland Central Provincial Minister Monica Mavhunga and the former First Lady, Grace Mugabe’s sister, Rosemary Chidhakwa has escalated after the minister counter-sued Chidhakwa at the High Court.
Chidhakwa was the first to approach the courts recently accusing Mavhunga, and her workers of invading her farm and disrupting winter wheat cropping currently underway.
Grace Mugabe’s sister complained over the minister’s actions which she viewed as unlawful saying there was a court order issued this year barring Mavhunga from illegally occupying the farm.
In her counter application, minister Mavhunga told the court that in November 2020, the Lands Ministry offered her subdivision of the same piece of land – Subdivision 1 Farm 25 of Glendale, Mazowe, Mashonaland Central. Mavhunga wrote:
The defendant has failed, refused, and or neglected to vacate the said premises in order to give plaintiff vacant possession of subdivision 2.
The minister is demanding an order ejecting Grace Mugabe’s sister and her employees from the land as she was granted rights over the subdivision before she was given an offer letter.
On the other hand, Chidhakwa claims Mavhunga invaded her land and occupied the main farmhouse after evicting her manager who lived there.
In her court papers, Chidhakwa said Lands Minister Anxious Masuka gave orders to officials from the Lands Ministry to order Chidhakwa’s manager to vacate the farm within three days. Read the court papers:
Mavhunga’s employees against a court order HC2019/21 returned to occupy the farm and took occupation of a farmhouse used by Chidhakwa’s manager and declared to share the lodgings.
Chidhakwa said she will suffer financial loss if Mavhunga was not removed immediately from the farm as she had a winter crop under irrigation.
The full hearing of the matter is pending.
A handful of prominent people who were allocated land during the reign of former President Robert Mugabe lost land when President Mnangagwa came to power and some believe it’s revenge for opposing his bid to rise to power at the height of factional wars in ZANU PF.
More: Pindula News; NewZimbabwe