The ManicaPost
Lovemore Kadzura Rusape Correspondent
MAKONI Rural District Council and some Nyabadza villagers are embroiled in a wrangle over the ownership and control of Mbombovale Farm. About 500 villagers who fall under the Mbombovale Farm situated at Nyabadza Business Centre along the Rusape-Nyanga Highway are accusing the local authority of stripping them of the ownership of the farm. They claim they have had title to the land since 1926.
The villagers claim that council, which was given authority to administer the Mbombovale Trust Fund in 2005, has since stopped to do so despite collecting revenue from the area. They also accused the council of selling business stands in the farm without notifying the affected villagers. Some of them are being displaced in the process.
Mbombovale Farm Community chairman Mr Christopher Makoni said they had title deeds to the 1 591,26 hectare farm issued in 1926 and the council should stop attempts to dispossess them of their ancestral land.
“Mbombovale Farm was in 1910 owned by a white settler syndicate of Andrew Lang, Jane Fill Murry and Andrew Hewett and in 1926 they sold the farm to the Maungwe tribe who were our ancestors who originally occupied this land. The farm was bought for £1 000 on August 4, 1922 and the transfer duty was £20. The farm was placed under the trusteeship of the then Chief Native Commissioner to carry out the objectives for which the land was acquired. In 1969, Treasury approved the establishment of the Mbombovale Trust Fund under the trusteeship of the Secretary for Internal Affairs and in 1996 the fund was placed under the trusteeship of the Secretary for Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development.
“To any informed mind, this is incontrovertible proof that the Mbombovale Farm Community owns and has title to this land. In 2005 the administration of the trust fund was decentralised from Local Government to Makoni Rural District Council and that is where our problems started,” said Mr Makoni.
Mr Makoni said instead for MRDC administering money collected from business and residents of Mbombovale, it allegedly claimed ownership of the farm and selling business stands in people’s plots without notice and compensation. The villagers have since stopped the construction of shops at Nyabadza Business Centre.
“In essence, MRDC administration erroneously assumed that it had been granted ownership, jurisdiction and administration of the farm. It is mind blogging how the council can come up to such an assumption when clearly what was surrendered to them was the power to administer an account. Land belonging to widows is being taken away unlawfully and sold as business stands without compensation. We have tried on several occasions to engage the council in vain to highlight our plight. We will make sure that no one constructs any structure on our land. This is not a communal land, but a private land owned by the community,” said Mr Makoni.
Makoni Rural District Council chairman Alderman David Guy Mutasa said he was not aware of the issue and referred further enquires to the council’s chief executive officer, Mr Edward Pise. Efforts to get a comment from Mr Pise were fruitless as he was said to be out of office for days.
