FORMER Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) chief executive officer Happison Muchechetere has been dragged to the High Court by a Banket white commercial farmer, who is seeking a declaratory order to remove his equipment from his former farm.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Former Buryhill Estate and Chikomo Chemhunga Farms owners, Stodart Brothers (Pvt) Ltd, filed a court application on Tuesday this week, through their representative, Robert Alexander Stodart, seeking to be declared the rightful owners of the farm equipment which Muchechetere was allegedly refusing to allow them to remove from the farm.
“It is ordered that applicant (Stodart Brothers) be and is hereby declared the rightful owner of the property at Buryhill Estate and Chikomo Chemhunga Farms, namely: Two steel structure sheds, five metal grain silos, weighbridge, maize grading plant and tobacco steam boiler,” Stodart said in his founding affidavit.
“The respondents’ (Muchechetere and [one] Mrs Chanetsa) action of barring applicant’s representatives from accessing and removing the property … be and is hereby declared unlawful.”
The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.
According to Stodart, who is also the director of the firm, the estate was acquired by the government under the land reform programme in 2001.
He was informed in 2004 that the government would pay compensation for the equipment on the farm.
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Stodart further said between 2004 and 2015, he had been engaging the Lands ministry in respect of compensation and in September 2015, he received a letter from the Lands and Rural Resettlement ministry secretary, granting him permission to remove the equipment.
However, Stodart said his efforts to remove the equipment had been hampered by Muchechetere, who also was claiming ownership of the same property.
On May 17 this year, Stodart said Muchechetere allegedly dismantled one of the grain silos, which he wanted to take away with him, but was later stopped by the police after Stodart reported the matter.
“The first respondent (Muchechetere) was only stopped from ferrying the dismantled grain silo by ZRP Banket, after he claimed he had authority over the equipment,” Stodart said, adding upon being requested to produce relevant documentation of ownership of the property, Muchechetere failed to do so.
Stodart said it was Muchechetere’s actions that had prompted him to approach the court to seek a declaratory order with a view to remove his equipment from the farm.
