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By Brenda Dube
The MDC Chamisa-affiliated and Honest Ndlovu-led Inyathi Pressure group is reportedly up in arms against Bubi Rural District Council and Township residents for invading Council land and selling stands at a cost of US$500-US$5000 depending on the size.
Ndlovu is a losing MDC A Councillor for Ward 11- Bubi district and is deputized by Sydney Muyambi – a losing MP Candidate for the Zimbabwe Partnership for Prosperity (ZIPP).
It is alleged that the pressure group has illegally settled more than 100 people who are already constructing their rural set-up homes around the Nyathi Township.
A beneficiary of this project who refused to be named showed this reporter his receipt for the land purchased but said what is important as of now is that he has the piece of land.
“I am very glad that the Inyathi Pressure group is distributing land to those in need of it at a very reasonable cost and in some instances freely. I got my stand at a mere cost of US$1500. The Council must allow this group to empower us. This movement belongs to the Nyathi people. Anyone thinking otherwise is a daydreamer. We appreciate their effort to give us this land. We are Zimbabweans. This land is not only for the Council or Minister of Lands or Minister of Local Government or Chiefs and their families,” he said.
He added: “Anyone trying to remove us from our given land will have to face the consequences. We were told that the Council leadership, Government, and Zanu PF are not happy with this move and they should not temper with the great efforts of our Pressure group.”
Asked to produce paperwork for the land, he said his identity as a Zimbabwean is his documentation for the invaded land.
“I am very confident and will fight with all I have to defend this land. What we want now is a situation whereby the leadership of this pressure group defends us as well against Zanu PF, Government, and Council leadership. We are doing this for our children.”
According to messages shown to this reporter, the pressure group deputy leader, one Muyambi, boasts that no one can remove resettled people as they are indigenous people of Zimbabwe with a right to be settled on the land they desire.
A majority of the resettled people are already constructing houses with the hope of having a bright future on the land.
Themba Sibanda, another a beneficiary who got land for free disclosed that their “People’s President Chamisa” directed their group leaders to make sure that their people get land at all costs.
“We work with the blessing of President Chamisa and his people who were fielded as Zanu PF councilors. We have their blessing and no one will try to reverse this move. We are in charge of this Council and pleased that at long last we are being given land in the township.”
A Senior Police officer at the Inyathi ZRP police base who refused to be named confirmed that they recently trapped and arrested some agents of the pressure who have since been charged and sentenced to 6 months to prison.
Meanwhile, those who are legal residents of the township have expressed concern over the Council’s CEO’s failure to control the invasion.
“It is unfortunate that the criminals are invading land and selling stands to people who are not known. If these people engage in crime like stealing or raping or doing any inhumane things, no one will account for them as we do not know some of them who are being given land. To me, this thing is about crime and positioning of some people as they believe that these people will vote for them during the election times. The Council and Police must act before it is too late. These people are also a threat to the environment so we are living on a time bomb.”
The residents are mobilising themselves to demonstrate against the illegal settlers who have become a nuisance to them.
“These people are building rural homes right around our hard-built houses. They don’t have toilets and they are polluting the Pollards dam which is the source of drinking water for the township and the surrounding communities. As residents, we have information that this pressure group is working with some Council officials. The contact between some Council officials and this pressure group is Muyambi, who is a deputy leader of this pressure group and a former senior member of Bubi RDC. Our township is in a sorry state. We want to urgently engage the Council leadership, government, and traditional leadership on this matter,” he said, vowing that they will be picketing if nothing is done to reverse these land grabs.
Efforts to get comments from the Council CEO were fruitless as his phone rang unanswered.
Both Ndlovu and Muyambi refused to comment on the matter.
By the time of going to print, Hon. July Moyo, the Minister of Local Government, had not responded to quations sent to his mobile phone.