The late Zanu PF politician, Shuvai Mahofa’s children who stay at a farm grabbed by their mother from a white farmer in Chatsworth could soon be homeless after John Paradza, the Deputy Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife allegedly sent youths into the homestead in a bid to take over the property.
Ward 7 councillor, Ticharwa Kagu confirmed in an interview with Masvingo Mirror that Paradza is pushing for a youth project to be established on the farm. On Saturday, ZINWA drilled a borehole at Mahofa’s homestead.
Zanu PF has used land as a weapon, taking it away from those who don’t toe party lines and powerful politicians grabbing away land from the weak thereby creating total insecurity over land tenure given under the land reform programme.
Masvingo Mirror understands from sources that Mahofa’s daughter, Fungai Masendeke- Mahofa is protesting the move and recently confronted Paradza over the issue.
Efforts to get a comment from Fungai were fruitless. Paradza’s mobile phone was not reachable up to the time of going to Press.
A source said that the youth programme is just a ruse for Paradza’s eventual takeover of the property.
The property, according to sources comprises of a large farmhouse, land and tobacco barns that Mahofa turned into a school (Tariro Primary) before she died.
Some sources said Mahofa through her late daughter, Erita who worked in the President’s Office grabbed two adjacent farms, Lauder and Rancho. Mahofa then gave away a larger part of Lauder Farm to the community through Chief Serima and remained with the other part of the farm. Chief Serima’s people have allegedly been vandalising structures at the homestead in Lauder Farm.
Kagu confirmed that a borehole was drilled near a homestead in Lauder where relatives of the late Shuvai Mahofa claim ownership.
“Yes, the borehole was drilled on Saturday, it is the Honourable Member of Parliament’s project under the Presidential Youth Programme.
“Youths were ordered to look for a site to drill a borehole where they can do community gardening on a 1-hectare piece of land, and that site was the one that was identified. The area was already surveyed. It’s under the Presidential Youth Program and the chairman for Resettlement Farms, Hwandi is the one who identified sites for the drilling of boreholes,” said Kagu.
Kagu insisted that the farm did not belong to Mahofa. He said that Mahofa’s was a neighbouring farm which is Rancho.
“Lauder farm does not belong to the late Shuvai Mahofa. Her farm, Rancho is next to Lauder and the borehole was drilled at an area where there is a homestead where government workers are currently residing. She was a caretaker at that farm for almost 10 years,” said Kagu.
Other sources said Mahofa owned many farms around Masvingo. Apart from these two, she has a wildlife farm in Bikita and some sugarcane farms in Chiredzi. Masvingo Mirror
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