Harare - While hundreds of people were evicted by police and soldiers from land taken by first lady Grace Mugabe, nine have gone to court seeking to charge Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo and commissioner of police Augustine Chihuru with “contempt of court”.
Several years ago Mugabe took over land known on the title deed as Arnold from local company Interfresh.
The land, about 30km west of Harare, is one of two pieces of land once used by former owners Anglo-American as a wildlife conservancy.
The two strips of land are contiguous with about a dozen other properties which Mugabe took from white farmers and Interfresh from 2000 in the Mazowe district, a 30-minute drive from Harare.
Along the main road linking the village to the enormous Mazowe Dam, Mugabe is by far the largest landowner in the district, and now arguably, she and President Robert Mugabe own more valuable agricultural land than any other family.
Hundreds of families have been evicted from “her” land in Mazowe since she first moved to the district.
Most recently scores of families became homeless when their huts were smashed down on Arnold Farm last month.
Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights went to the Harare High Court on behalf of some of those whose houses were destroyed and it ordered an end to the evictions. But some villagers said police and soldiers continued to break down the small homes at night.
Those whose houses were trashed all had similar tales to tell: they arrived on this land, looking for somewhere to live during chaos in some rural areas during the height of invasions of white-owned farms from 2000.
One man, who said he was beaten up during the destruction of his small home last month, was angry: “We have nowhere to go. My family has no home. I have no job, and they are sending me away before my crops are ready, so we will have no food.”
He was gone, 24 hours later.
Now some of those whose small homes were knocked down have gone back to court asking for Chombo and Chihuri to be arrested because they failed to observe last month’s high court order stopping evictions from this piece of land.
Grace Mugabe has said she wants the Arnold land to become part of a wildlife area.
But she is expanding her business interests beyond Mazowe. She has taken transfer of the R60-million purchase of a prime block of residential land in an upmarket Harare suburb close to the massive, heavily guarded home she shares with her husband in Borrowdale.
Those in the tourist industry say if Mugabe does establish a conservancy on the land known as Arnold, she could do well, as there is so little wildlife left close to Harare.