GOVERNMENT’S fight against land barons, accused of illegally parcelling out State land in urban areas, has turned nasty amid reports that Harare’s provincial development co-ordinator (PDC) Tafadzwa Muguti was recently poisoned and is in a critical condition.
He recently admitted that he had angered many, both in Zanu
PF and the opposition MDC Alliance, over his tough stance against land barons,
adding that his rivals were plotting to “deal with him”.
Muguti has been under the weather over the past few weeks
as a result of suspected poisoning allegedly at the hands of the land barons.
Sources alleged that some of the land barons even
threatened to do anything to stop him from unmasking their illegal activities.
In a WhatsApp message to NewsDay yesterday, Muguti curtly
said: “I am not available at present, will connect once available.”
He, however, could not confirm whether his ill-health was
due to alleged poisoning. Muguti’s life has been in danger ever since he
started fighting land barons in the capital.
Sources alleged that he has been the subject of attack in
the ruling party’s social media groups over his tough stance.
In a series of tweets recently, Muguti seemed to confirm
that the land barons wars were baying for his blood.
“The last few weeks have been very difficult for me and my
family. I fell very ill at work and found myself thinking these were the last
days of my life,” he tweeted.
Muguti said when he returned to Zimbabwe in 2017 from South
Africa to work for the ruling Zanu PF party, he underestimated the “fires
ahead”.
“When I was appointed to be PDC for Harare province, it was
a privilege and an honour to serve my country more. Little did I know the fires
ahead,” he tweeted then.
“Within three months, our team had awoken the lost noise
about land barons. We held well over 30 interviews in a short space of time
advocating for land barons to fall. Let me be the first to say I underestimated
darkness because when they responded, they hit hard.
“I will be back healthier and stronger, for the Lord will
heal me and give me more time for the cause.”
Harare Metropolitan Affairs minister Oliver Chidau said he
was aware of his subordinate’s hospitalisation, but could not disclose the
nature of the illness.
“I only know he has not been well. I don’t know anything
outside that. He is not feeling well, that’s all I know. We are wishing him
well and that he should be coming back soon. He just says he is feeling weak,”
Chidau said.
An official in Muguti’s office confirmed that the land scam
buster has been unwell for some weeks, but could not comment further.
“He is currently on leave, he is not feeling well.
Concerning his health and the challenges he may have faced, I don’t know who
you can talk to because he is not even taking calls,” the official said.
They said he was a victim of the vicious land wars that
have hit the country and led to the arrest of current and former Zanu PF
officials, among them former Labour minister Petronella Kagonye and her Local Government
counterpart, Ignatius Chombo.
Gweru land developer Smelly Dube, and the late former
Chitungwiza deputy mayor Fredrick Mabamba, who died in remand prison last week,
were fingered in some of the illegal land deals.
The land barons were exposed by the Justice Tendai Uchena
land audit report which indicated that the State might have lost over US$3
billion in the scam which involved top politicians, mainly from Zanu PF.
According to the audit report, Zanu PF officials illegally
parcelled out State land in and around urban areas to lure voters.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration has declared
war on land barons, but most of them are hitting back, with some arguing that
they facilitated acquisition of land to home-seekers as a campaign strategy for
the ruling party ahead of the 2013 elections and the 2016 by-elections.
Last week, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission arrested
10 suspected land barons from Ruwa and vowed not to leave any stone unturned in
fighting graft. Newsday
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