A high-powered delegation comprising Zanu PF politburo members is set to visit Chiredzi today to deal with a land dispute pitting villagers against sugar-growing companies in the Lowveld.
Report by Tatenda Chitagu, Own Correspondent
Lands and Rural Resettlement minister Herbert Murerwa and Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo, who is also Zanu PF secretary for lands, were part of the delegation.
The meeting follows the recent invasion of Tongaat Hullet’s sugarcane growing plots in the Lowveld by Zanu PF party supporters in the Tshangaan speaking community, claiming that they had been sidelined in the land reform propgramme.
Almost 1 000 Zanu PF supporters from the community invaded sugarcane plots in Triangle early this month claiming outsiders had benefited from land in their locality.
NewsDay is reliably informed that the meeting would be held in Chiredzi town council’s boardroom. Chiefs Tshovani and Chilonga, lands officers and officials from Tongaat Hullet were expected to attend the meeting.
“Chombo and Murerwa are expected to chair a heated meeting in Chiredzi following the land invasions which rocked Tongaat Hullet. The locals are bitter, hence they took the law into their own hands. They feel neglected by Zanu PF,” said a top government official privy to the meeting.
The invaders, who staged a demonstration late last year at the Chiredzi district lands offices, said they felt they would benefit when Titus Maluleke, who hails from the area, was appointed governor, but years down the line, they were yet to benefit.
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“Our land has been taken by the foreigners. They benefited at our expense. There are very few Tshangaans who benefited from the sugarcane plots despite the plantations being based in our backyard,” said a villager who declined to be named.
