Last Friday, Headlands MP Christopher Chingosho (Zanu PF)
invited the constituency’s commercial farmers and A2 farmers for an emergency
meeting over the issue.
NewsDay is in possession of the invitation letter whose
main agenda was downsizing of farms and the formation of the Headlands
development committee.
“All the A2 and commercial farm owners in Headlands
constituency are required to attend the meeting in person and on time,” the
letter read.
However, sources in Headlands told NewsDay that Chingosho
was targeting Chinamasa’s farm as there were reports that the former Finance
minister had plans to become MP for the area in 2023.
Chingosho is reportedly unleashing youths on those he
believes to be his competitors in the constituency.
“The meeting took place, but Chingosho did not mention
Chinamasa and Made by name. The issue is
about underutilised farms owned by the big bosses, which are more than 400
hectares, and youths want some of the land that Made and Chinamasa are failing to
utilise,” a source said.
“Both Chinamasa and Made definitely have oversized farms
and youths want that land. Chinamasa’s farm in Headlands is called Tsukumai
Farm and it is almost 3 000 hectares, while Made’s farm is almost 1 500
hectares (Tara Farm),” the source said.
“The reason Chingosho is also going after Chinamasa is that
Chinamasa can’t win Rusape Urban (Makoni Central), so he is also looking for
rural Headlands constituency in the next election in order to protect his
interests.”
In the 2018 elections, Chinamasa lost the Makoni Central
seat to David Tekeshe, now MDC-T.
However, a youth in Headlands told NewsDay on condition of
anonymity, that they were actually eyeing large tracts of underutilised land in
the hands of some party bigwigs.
“We as youths are suffering. We don’t have land, yet some
of our big bosses have land which they are failing to fully utilise,” the youth
said.
Chingosho confirmed the meeting, adding that in their
recommendations, there was the issue of giving land to the youths.
“We had a meeting on Friday and we recommended giving our
youths land and other groups of people after the downsizing of the farms, which
was another recommendation we did. The issue of downsizing is a government
policy and the issue has been addressed in Parliament,” he said.
“But here in Headlands, I believe the youths are the most
affected when it comes to getting land.”
Chingosho, however, refuted the allegations that the
downsizing of farms was targeting Chinamasa and Made.
“No, they are not being targeted. We are just following
what the government said we should do,” he said. Zanu PF provincial youth
chairperson Tawanda Mukodza was not reachable for comment. Newsday
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