MIDWEEK REPORTER
MASVINGO-Jmmy Tavasvika Matambo of the Nemamwa clan has added his voice to the farms ‘wrangle’ pitting the Reformed Church in Zimbabwe and Chief Mugabe.
Matambo said the two farms at the centre of dispute, Zero and Henry Murray have always been in Nemamwa area and not under Chief Mugabe.
“The farms in question were expropriated from Nemamwa by the colonial regime and given to the church and we know they have title deeds to that effect, but the land belongs to Nemamwa.
“The land does not belong to Chief Mugabe as some people claim, Nemamwa Primary School is actually located in Zero farm which is under Nemamwa, there is no way a school named after Nemamwa can be found in Chief Mugabe’s area,” said Matambo during an interview with The Midweek Watch recently.
He added that historically Chief Mugabe and Nemamwa were fierce rivals and when the white colonialists came they found the two at war.
The colonialists sided with Chief Mugabe who had been defeated by Chief Nemamwa and took away the land which was then given to the church.
Matambo also said since the time Nemamwa was headman under Chief Charumbira, the area was known to be under his jurisidiction
When contacted for comment, Chief Mugabe’s mobile number was not reachable.
One of his aides who spoke to The Midweek Watch said he was not in a position to answer on the issue of boundaries but said he had heard that an RCZ senior official is eyeing one of the two farms for personal aggrandizement and intends to start horticulture farming very soon.
“There is a church leader who intends to start a horticulture project on one of the two farms, unfortunately we are going to vehemently resist that, where will the families who have been on the farms for over 40 years go to? We will not allow that to happen under our watch, they are hiding behind title deeds but that is inconsequential,” he said on condition of anonymity as he had not been cleared by Chief Mugabe to speak to the media.
The RCZ spokesperson, Reverend Lovemore Mashamba who spoke to The Midweek Watch requested written questions on whatsapp but for two weeks he had not responded despite having seen them.
Masvingo District Development Coordinator Joyce Chikugu said the Zero and Henry Murray farms have not been allocated to any chieftainship, and the matter is still pending.
Nemamwa lands officer Owen Shayawabaya said he has not heard anything about evictions on the two farms and if anything of that nature is to happen, they will be the first to know and will be carrying out the exercise.
“No evictions or dispute has been brought to our attention concerning the two farms’ villagers who are settled there, neither any boundary dispute that we know of,” he said.
