RUWA farmer Edward Dube yesterday defended the eviction of 20 families from Mara Farm just outside Epworth claiming they no longer worked for him and that he had obtained a court order to kick them out.
REPORT BY FELUNA NLEYA STAFF REPORTER
Dube, who is into dairy farming, said the families had continued staying at his property after he advised them to leave. He also claimed the families remained defiant even after he showed them an eviction order granted by High Court judge Justice Ben Hlatshwayo.
“The farm is mine and according to the law I am entitled to choose whom I want to work for me,” Dube said.
The families, who were evicted on Monday, claimed that since Dube acquired the farm in 2005, he had been underpaying them, adding that he kicked them out after they demanded their dues.
The former workers said they could not access food nor water from their previous workplace after they were told not to enter the farm. The court order granted by Justice Hlatshwayo in November last year reads: “The respondents and all those claiming occupation through them be and hereby ordered to vacate subdivision 1 to 3 of Grootsvlei Farm situated in Goromonzi District of Mashonaland East Province, failing which the deputy sheriff together with such officers of the ZRP as he may require shall eject the respondents aforesaid together with all persons claiming occupation through them from the said property.”
Dube also said: “I do dairy farming and I plant maize for the purposes of stockfeed, so I do not necessarily need workers at the farm all the time. The business is not labour intensive, I really do not need that much labour.”
He said 90% of the people who were staying at his farm work at other farms around the area.
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“I told them in May 2012 that no one stays at my farm without working for me, I cannot accommodate people who are not working for me so I told them it’s either they pay rent or they volunteer services,” Dube said.
“They refused to vacate that is when we went to court and a judgment was passed in November that they should vacate. On December 23, the deputy sheriff came and told them to vacate by January 3 voluntarily, but they did not leave, that is when they were evicted on Monday.”
