OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Sunday 7.00PM.
MASHONALAND West governor Peter Chanetsa at the weekend evicted nearly 900 families from surrounding resettlement schemes who had invaded nine commercial farms in the region, to the west of the Zambabwean capital Harare.
Chanetsa said government will not tolerate lawlessness and land-hungry people will be settled following planned procedures, Ziana news agency reported on Sunday. “We are not going to tolerate haphazard settlements from people who think they can take the law into their hands and illegally settle themselves on land which does not belong to them.”
Although the families agreed to vacate the farms, they threatened to return if government officials do not address them again next week. The families argue that it is difficult to be settled in their respective areas as there is not enough land. They also alleged that resettlement officers are soliciting bribes.
The governor responded although the resettlement programme is slow, people have to be patient as government will not settle them all in one year. “Before the president talked about the land issue no one went to settle themselves on people’s farms,” Chanetsa said. “What is so urgent now if they waited for 18 years?”
The families from Jompan, Muzvezve, Rocklands and Nyamatani resettlement schemes in Sanyati invaded the commercial farms on August 3. The country has faced a spate of invasions of fertile commercial farms by impatient villagers who have cited delays by government to resettle them.
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