BANANA farmers and villagers in Chimanimani district in
Manicaland have filed an urgent High Court application to block their eviction
by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) without a
court order.
During the past weeks, several villagers have been arrested
by the police while ZimParks has threatened to demolish their homes and banana
crops.
About 223 banana farmers were set to lose their farms. Lawyers
Maunga Maanda and Associates were instructed by the Zimbabwe Environmental
Lawyers Association (ZELA) to file an urgent application at the High Court in
Mutare on Monday to stop the evictions.
Willie Mafuta, who is the first applicant, said in his
founding affidavit that ZimParks and its agents were arbitrarily arresting
villagers in violation of the Constitution, as no eviction order had been
secured from the courts.
“I can confirm that the first respondent (ZimParks),
through its agents, are threatening to evict us from the Chikware and Mapembere
villages. The threats are real as arrests have already been made and they are
coming to our areas heavily armed,” he said.
“Should the respondent not be stopped from unlawful
evictions, a total of 223 people stand to be affected, as they will be left
homeless with no source of income and food.”
The lawyers claimed that the matter was urgent as the
applicants and their families were vulnerable by virtue of living in a remote
area with no real time communication. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment