×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

48 farm workers battle eviction

News
FORTY-EIGHT farm workers are embroiled in a legal dispute with a newly resettled Chinhoyi farmer as they are resisting eviction from a farm at which they used to work for a white commercial farmer.

FORTY-EIGHT farm workers are embroiled in a legal dispute with a newly resettled Chinhoyi farmer as they are resisting eviction from a farm at which they used to work for a white commercial farmer before it was taken over by the government under the land reform programme.

Report by Everson Mushava

Saineti Meeting and 47 other ex-farm labourers have approached the Chinhoyi Magistrate Court to block Nixon Chirinda, the new owner of Rainfeild Farm which was taken by government in 2007, from ejecting them from the farm claiming they do not have anywhere to go and would not have any problem working for him.

Representing the 48 farm workers, Advocate Thabani Mpofu is challenging government to provide alternative homes for the ex-workers.

Mpofu wanted the Supreme Court to reconsider the law on land reform so that it addresses the plight of farm workers.

“Doubtless the charge has properly been brought in terms of Section 3(1) of the Gazetted Lands (consequential provisions) Act as accused persons are prima facie in occupation. The question which that provision and indeed which this particular charge does not address is this: “Where must the accused persons go?” Mpofu argued in his defence for the workers.

“The farm dwellings are the only homes that accused persons have. That is exactly what they mean when they say they have nowhere to go. Unquestionably, the right to a livelihood is intricately linked to the right to shelter. Human beings live in homes.

“In addition to the farm, complainant also resides in urban Chinhoyi. Complainant, therefore, has two places where he can put his single head. The accused persons do not have a single place where they can put their 48 heads.”

Mpofu is seeking to have the matter referred to the Supreme Court to determine the matter since there is a breach of rights as enshrined in the constitution.

“This application seeks, therefore, the referral of those questions to the Constitutional Court for its attention to determine whether Section 3(1) offends against provisions of Section 12(1) of the Constitution in that it impairs, by reason of its very wide and reckless reach, the accused persons’ right to livelihood and by extension their right to life,” the lawyer averred.

Mpofu said the law provided only for new farm owners and neglects the employees, who are black Zimbabweans who have no other homes except the farms.

“It tells them that they must vacate the very mundane accommodation available to them and make way for the rich who have their own places of residence . . . The manner in which the provision is cast is unforgivably wide, intolerant, and heartless and strikes at the perch of human existence,” he added.