MINISTER GRABBED MY PLOT : WIDOW

Justice Sunsley Zisengwe has granted Masvingo City Council time to file opposing papers against a widow fighting Minister of State for Masvingo, Ezra Chadzamira who is allegedly building a private school in her plot in Morningside.

The local authority missed its time to file opposing papers in a case in which Farai Mazenge Mutsetse accuses the former of conniving with Chadzamira to take away her stand and build a private school.

Mutsetse complains in her court papers that papers pertaining to her property disappeared from a file kept at council offices and fortunately for her she had copies of the same file at home.

Justice Zisengwe granted the application to uplift bar recently. The application essentially asks the court to allow them to continue with their case after missing a window in which they ought to have filed papers.

Masvingo City is a defendant in a matter in which Chadzamira allegedly grabbed the property and began building a school. Other defendants are the local authority’s housing director, Minister of Local Government and Public Works and Chadzamira.

Documents pertaining to the eight-hectare property except a house plan have all disappeared from a file kept at the City Council offices, according to an application filed by Farai Mazenge Mutsetse’s widow in October 2024. Mutsetse bought the property from council in 2009 and Chadzamira who is the most powerful man in Masvingo emerged last year and started building on the piece of land.

Some of the documents in the file include water bills, rates, service and sewer charges that she has been paying for the last 16 years.

Mutsetse’s lawyers, Dube Banda Nzarayapenga filed an application to evict Chadzamira and stop him from further construction on the plot where she has a home and also keeps livestock.

Chadzamira who has allegedly not produced any documents is claiming that he bought the plot from the Ministry of Local Government. Chadzamira also grabbed a mansion and a farm, Cresta Ibeka some 10km from Masvingo CBD along Mashava road from a then 66-year-old widow Yvonne Goddard who became homeless.

A company contracted by Chadzamira is currently building at the property and Mutsetse stated in her application that this has taken over grazing land for her herd.

Masvingo City is represented by Jackson Mupoperi of Saratoga Makausi Law Chambers. Sources close to the matter said that the local authority unnecessarily brought itself into issues to do with Chadzamira’s personal interests and is wasting ratepayers money on hefty legal fees. Masvingo Mirror

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