By Beverly Bizeki
Nine villagers from Mushandike area in Masvingo breathed a sigh of relief after a court order to have them evicted from their homes under the operation order ‘No To Land Barons’ was quashed by Masvingo high court judges Justice Garainesu Mawadze and Stanislaus Zisengwe.
The nine namely Simplisiyo Mugorongi, Wetsi Chibamure, Gladys Mugorongi, Benjamin Dzimbanhete, Thomas Dzimbanhete, Dzingira Chipatiso, Tichaona Tazvivinga, Lameck Makanda and Farai Tauya are the few lucky ones among victims of the shambolic operation that saw government cracking down on alleged illegal settlers and land barons across the country leading to the arrest and eviction of many.
According to a high court document in possession of this publication, the appellants were charged wrongly and the conviction was set aside invalidating the sentence.
“It is ordered by consent that, the appellants were charged, convicted and sentenced under a wrong provision of the law. The conviction in respect of all appellants is set aside and the sentence is quashed.
“The Prosecutor General has the discretion to proceed with the matter under the appropriate law if he or she so desires,’ reads the court order.
The nine were convicted after a full trial at Masvingo magistrates’ court on February 13 for occupying gazetted land and were sentenced to three months imprisonment which and the sentence was wholly suspended on condition that they vacate their homes of more than 20 years on or before March 31 of the same year.
Unsatisfied with the court order the group appealed at the magistrates’ court which was in vain and made an appeal to the high court through their human rights lawyer Yolander Chandata after which they were granted a suspension order.
The matter appeared before Justice Sunsley Zisengwe based on the ruling of the magistrate to the effect that the nine appellants were illegal settlers because they did not have the required paperwork which is the permit, lease, or offer letter.
They argued that the court had erred in that the appellants were not illegal settlers in the strict sense of the matter but were people who had been settling on the land for more than 20 years and were making payments to the relevant local authority during their stay on the particular land.
Further to that the law which was said to have been violated by the appellants was not the best to tackle the matter as they were being charged with contravening the Gazetted Land Act. The gazette that was produced by the court was a 1982 gazette but then the Act which they were said to have contravened was a 2006 Act hence in legal terms they cannot be charged with an offense that is said to have happened before the Act became law which is more of applying the law in retrospect.
The nine are some of the people who had lifetime investments going on at their homes where they were being evicted from as they had structures, houses, boreholes, and other viable projects as most were farmers.
In Masvingo province alone about 2 200 arrests were made with over 590 convictions made.
