Nearly 3,000 families displaced by the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam project could face another forced relocation. The families now fear eviction after an unnamed investor allegedly claimed ownership of their resettlement land.
Authorities moved approximately 20,000 people to Chingwizi in Mwenezi District in 2014. Their ancestral homes faced flooding during the construction of the 9,600-hectare dam in Masvingo Province.
The government resettled the families under Statutory Instrument 53 of 2014. Officials promised land, compensation and essential infrastructure, including schools and clinics.
However, more than a decade later, the affected villagers allege that their security remains under threat. They claim people presenting themselves as investors have entered their land and threatened to demolish their homes.
The alleged intrusions have also raised concerns about graves belonging to deceased relatives.
Lawyers Demand Answers Over Land Dispute
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights is now representing the affected families. Lawyers Obey Shava and Tatenda Sigauke wrote to Lands Minister Vangelis Haritatos, seeking urgent clarification.
“We act for the various households and families who were resettled at Chingwizi Section, Nuanetsi Ranch A, Mwenezi District, Masvingo Province, by virtue of Statutory Instrument 53 of 2014, having been displaced from their original homes in three phases to pave the way for the construction and development of the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam,” the lawyers wrote.
The lawyers said the families developed the allocated land with the ministry’s knowledge and approval. Over the years, residents built homes, established community facilities and buried their relatives there.
However, they allege that new claimants are now challenging their occupation.
“We are instructed that, in recent weeks, certain persons and/or companies, purporting to be investors, have entered upon the land occupied by our clients and are disturbing our clients’ peaceful and undisturbed occupation thereof,” the letter states.
“These persons/companies claim to have been allocated the very same land by your ministry.
“We are further instructed that these persons/companies, or those acting on their behalf, have desecrated graves situated on the land and have threatened to raze down our clients’ homes using graders, without producing any order of court or other lawful authority for doing so.”
Ministry Given Seven Days to Clarify Ownership
The legal representatives said the alleged investors had not produced documents proving their claims. They also said no evidence showed that the government had lawfully terminated the villagers’ occupation rights.
“Our clients are entitled to know, and your ministry is obliged in law and in fairness to disclose, the true position regarding the land which our clients occupy,” they said.
Shava and Sigauke have given the ministry seven days to respond in writing. They want officials to confirm whether any portion of the occupied land has been allocated, leased or offered to another party.
The lawyers also demand the identities of the alleged new beneficiaries and the legal grounds for any fresh allocations. Additionally, they want copies of relevant offer letters, gazette notices and documents terminating the families’ existing rights.
They have further asked the ministry to explain what measures it will take to prevent unlawful evictions, harassment and home demolitions.
The families now await the ministry’s response as uncertainty grows over their future. Their lawyers have warned that residents will resist any attempt to remove them unlawfully.
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