Mpofu has allegedly deployed armed guards to block the
owners from accessing the farm.
He has also allegedly locked out workers at the farm owned
by scientist Zephaniah Dhlamini, miner Charles Moyo and human rights defender
Siphosami Malunga, who is the executive director for the Open Society
Initiative for Southern Africa.
Over 150 workers, permanent and casual, have reportedly
lost their jobs and have become homeless since Mpofu’s takeover.
“When he (Mpofu) moved onto the farm in early December, he
found us actively farming. We were harvesting onion which we had grown on 4ha.
We managed to harvest about 50 tonnes of saleable onions and 30 tonnes small
onions that we intended to replant as sets on 2ha this January. About 1,5ha of
onion could not be removed from the fields to the sheds. I am sure it’s all
rotten from the heavy rains in the past weeks,” Dhlamini told NewsDay
yesterday.
“We were also in the process of harvesting butternut. About
20 tonnes could not be harvested and have been stolen by people or damaged by
wild pigs. We had also transplanted over 60 000 cabbages which we intended to
sell in December and January when the prices are at their highest. As we speak,
these cabbages are rotting in the fields.
“Obert found us with a workforce of 45 permanent workers.”
Mpofu has reportedly chased away the workers, including the
foreman and women supervisors from the 554-hectare farm.
Yesterday, Mpofu refused to comment on the matter. “Have
you been sent? Don’t be silly. I’m not going to talk about that issue,” Mpofu
said.
But Dhlamini insisted that Mpofu had evicted workers from
their quarters, adding that the employees had lost their sources of income.
“We paid our casual workers US$5 per day. All these people
are now unemployed. We have about 100 beef cattle on the farm and 20 goats,
they have not been dipped or received scheduled vaccinations and dosing as we
are denied access to the farm,” he said.
“We also had over 200 free range chickens, we don’t know
their status. We left our belongings and 20 tonnes of maize in the main farm
house. We had locked the farm house and its gates.”
In December, the Bulawayo High Court granted an application
by farm owners for the eviction of Mpofu and Dumisani Madzivanyati, pending a
decision of the same court on the main application in which they are
challenging a government decision to list the farm for compulsory acquisition.
Madzivanyati is a lecturer at the National University of
Science and Technology.
Mpofu then appealed against the ruling, but Malunga and his
partners went back to the High Court to seek his eviction pending the outcome
of his appeal.
The application is yet to be set down for hearing. Newsday
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