Former Masvingo Provincial Affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti has said several top-ranking Zanu PF officials have secretly toured his farm and are spreading falsehoods that he is destroying his citrus plantations as part of preparations to flee the country. by Staff reporter
Bhasikiti has claimed that some party bigwigs in the province were now angling to grab his farm after he was recently chucked out of office by President Robert Mugabe over allegations of supporting ousted former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
This comes at a time Zanu PF has scaled up its campaign to purge all Mujuru loyalists with companies aligned to the faction denied government contracts.
“I don’t know why they want to destroy my life because I have invested a lot in this farm. I heard some party officials from this area (Mwenezi) passed by, but they did not say anything,” Bhasikiti said.
“We started pruning in December last year and we are continuing with the process. Now that I have been relieved of my duties by the President, some party officials want to take advantage of that and push me out by spreading false reports,” he said.
Bhasikiti’s farm manager Simon Muchongu said they always pruned their citrus plants every five years to allow for development of new shoots.
“I have been around for the past 34 years and this exercise has always been done from December onwards to April. Since my boss took over this farm, this is the third time we have pruned the trees,” Muchonga said. “We were shocked to see a ZTV crew coming and shooting only that section which was pruned last week and they refused to come and shoot this other section where we pruned in December and the shoots are already coming up.”
