Following days of public outcry and an uproar from the
villagers, opposition politicians and non-governmental organisations,
government yesterday repealed SI 50 of 2021 and issued SI 63A of 2021, which
states that the project to be established in Chilonga is an irrigation scheme.
“It is hereby notified, for general information, that the
Communal Land (setting aside of land) (Chiredzi) notice, 2021, published in SI
50 of 2021, contained errors,” SI 63A of 2021 read in part.
“Statutory instrument was corrected ‘by the deletion of the
words purpose of lucerne production’ and substitution of ‘establishment of an
irrigation scheme’.”
Following the amendment, Presidential spokesperson George
Charamba said: “Dendairy is a very small part in the equation. Too small in
fact. We have huge supply contracts for a variety of products enough to exhaust
the ardour of the community combined. The whole of Chilonga is set for massive
transformation, harbinger of which is the revived irrigation.”
But United Kingdom based lawyer Alex Magaisa said the
Chilonga villagers were still in danger of being evicted.
“SI 50 of 2021 designated the Chilonga land for growing
lucerne grass for Dendairy’s cows. It provided for the permanent removal of the
Chilonga community. SI 63A changes the designation to establishing an
irrigation scheme. But the provision for permanent removal remains unchanged,”
he tweeted.
“The regime is playing hide and seek with the beleaguered
Chilonga community. It has issued a new statutory instrument, but the change is
largely an illusion. The Chilonga community is still in danger of removal.”
Last week, President Emmerson Mnangagwa ordered the
convening of a high-level meeting to deal with the matter that was getting out
of hand, with sources who attended the meeting saying there were suspicions of
infiltration in the Attorney-General’s Office by interested parties in order to
derail the project.
The sources also alleged that there was sloppy supervision
of the handling of the matter by the ministries of Local Government and Public
Works, and Agriculture.
SI 50 of 2021, experts said, was ultra vires the Communal
Lands Act, adding that the drafters might have been infiltrated to scuttle the
process.
The project, sources who were part of the meeting said, was
actually an irrigation scheme of over 200 000 hectares and the project was not
a creation of the current government.
“It is a plan by Rhodesians many years ago, in the 1950s.
What we have just done is to now say we have water in Tugwi-Mukosi and Lake
Kyle and plans to build Runde-Dende and a good water basis and plan,” a source
said.
The source said there were fears that people interested in
the project caused the insertion, through some drafters in the Attorney
General’s office, clauses to trigger outrage and scuttle the process.
Last week, Charamba tweeted saying: “Trust me, all those
with throbbing veins on Chilonga will realise its all much ado about nothing.
As early as Monday. The courts are not foolish to give interim relief over
nothing happening materially on the ground anyway.
“Facts on the ground show very few households stand to be
affected by this new thrust, huge swathes of which land fall within unutilised
zones. The few households which may be affected only get so affected in the
sense of being re-sited as already indicated, all at government expense and for
improved rural housing.”
Under SI 50 of 2021, government ordered the eviction of
over 12 000 villagers, translating to more than 2 500 families for a grass
farming project run by Dendairy, a dairy firm headquarted in Kwekwe and run by
Neville Coetzee, who reportedly has strong links with Mnangagwa.
On Saturday, the Masvingo Magistrates Court issued a
temporary relief to stop the evictions after the Zimbabwe Environmental Law
Association filed an urgent chamber application seeking to interdict the
government from going ahead with its plan.
The planned evictions were described as unconstitutional
and “colonial mentality” by law expert and National Constitutional Assembly
leader Lovemore Madhuku. Newsday
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