A white former farmer Shane Warth who in December 2022 was evicted from his 60-hectare plot in Mwenezi says his several attempts to get an offer letter have all been in vain.
The plot is located in the Mpapa area of Mwenezi East’s Ward 13 in Masvingo Province.
Warth (65) had utilised the plot for 32 years and his farming equipment is now lying idle at his homestead in Chiredzi following his eviction from the plot.
He had a total of 25 permanent workers and besides specialising in sugar cane farming, Warth also grew maize and soya beans among several other crops.
In a telephone interview, Warth told Tellzim News that the eviction had completely ruined his life. He said:
I acquired the plot by paying for it some 32 years back and I made a huge investment to ensure massive production at my plot.
Right now it is very painful that someone who had put absolutely nothing came over to claim ownership of the plot.
The eviction had completely ruined my life. Right now my farming equipment is idle here in Chiredzi.
Despite overwhelming evidence that I had been very productive for the past 32 years, I made countless efforts to get the offer letter at district, provincial and national levels but I was turned down in all the offices.
A farmer in the Mpapa area who spoke on condition of anonymity said they relied on Warth for farming expertise. Said the farmer:
We were given this land and we paid for it as it was part of the pension package from Triangle Sugarcane Company where all the plot occupants used to work.
What irks me the most is that in the case of Warth’s eviction, the issue of property rights was completely ignored.
We are really wondering where exactly are we going as a nation when proven progressive farmers like Warth are kicked out of their land like that and replaced by people without any track record of farming.
Why doesn’t the government look for several vacant lands for newcomers to prove their farming skills?
More worrisome is the fact that his yearly production regularly surpasses the rest of the farmers here.
He was the only local farmer with the Centre Pivot and many of us relied on him in diverse ways.
Warth was evicted from his plot to pave way for ZANU PF central Committee member Cuthbert Muzara and one Emmanuel Chugubu.
Muzara told Tellzim News that he is legally occupying the 21-hectare part of the plot that used to belong to Warth.
He admitted that Warth was evicted from the main house and the larger plot section that has now been occupied by Chigubu.