THE High Court has evicted police from Hydon Farm in Mt Hampden, Zvimba district, where they used to carry out their horse breeding activities.
This follows a successful court application by a local land developer, Felix Munyaradzi through his company Delatifin Engineering.
He cited Police Commissioner-General Godwin Matanga, a ZRP Support Unit commissioner only identified as Dube, Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe and Local Government minister July Moyo as respondents.
Court papers reveal that in 2015, Delatifin was allocated 120 hectares of land at Haydon Farm which was previously being used for horse breeding by the police.
To compensate for the loss of the land, the Local Government ministry allocated the police 200 hectares on another piece of land in Zvimba called Penrose Farm.
Delatifin then constructed houses at Penrose worth US$110 849 to compensate for the houses that the police officers had lost when they vacated Haydon Farm.
The company started servicing the land and selling stands to members of the public after Moyo approved its layout plan for Haydon Farm.
However, on November 24, Matanga and Dube deployed riot police details to forcibly remove Delatfin security guards from their post at the premises.
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Delatifin approached the High Court seeking a spoliation order against Matanga, arguing that the hostile takeover of the farm was unlawful.
The company said the attack was motivated by Matanga’s desire to raise the issue of compensation which it had dealt with by building police houses at Penrose Farm.
In response, Matanga said the matter should be struck off the roll to allow negotiations to take place, adding that Delatifin could not seek an interdict on the basis of an offer letter issued 26 years ago.
But, High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi ruled in favour of Delatifin.
“The fact that first respondent (Matanga) as would appear from the application appears to wrongly think that police are justified to hold on to possession of the farm until compensation is paid does not show bad faith, but ill advice. Resultantly, the application succeeds. The following order is made: The first respondent shall upon service of this order restore possession and occupation of Haydon Park tothe applicant. The first respondent through the second and any police officer shallnot interfere with the operations of the application,” Justice Chitapi ruled.
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