Back to Index

Mutasa gives justice a kick in the teeth
Kumbirai Mafunda, The Financial Gazette (Zimbabwe)
June 22, 2006

http://www.fingaz.co.zw/story.aspx?stid=1373

IN yet another kick in the teeth for the rule of law, the powerful State Security Minister, Didymus Mutasa, has ordered the eviction of a new black farmer, Langton Masunda, who is locked in a fierce ownership wrangle with Speaker of Parliament John Nkomo over a lucrative hunting concession in Matabeleland.

Barely a week after the High Court ordered Nkomo, who is also the ZANU PF national chairman, not to meddle with operations at Lugo Ranch, Mutasa on Tuesday served Masunda with a letter ordering the Bulawayo businessman to immediately cease all farming and hunting operations and vacate the lucrative property.

"Please be advised that the Minister of State for National Security, Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement in the President’s Office is withdrawing the offer of land made to you. You are required forth with to cease all or any operations that you may have commenced thereon and immediately vacate the said piece of land," reads part of the withdrawal letter signed by Mutasa.

Masunda was given an offer letter in 2002 under the government’s resettlement programme, which was supposed to economically empower the majority of landless Zimbabweans.

But in 2005 Nkomo, widely viewed as level headed among President Robert Mugabe’s lieutenants and who at one time was in charge of land redistribution, filed papers in the High Court seeking Masunda’s eviction claiming he was offered the farm by the government in 2003. However, Masunda successfully challenged Nkomo’s eviction bid resulting in the Speaker of Parliament withdrawing the case.

However, Nkomo renewed his bid to evict Masunda a fortnight ago when his loyalists reportedly drove out four international tourists who had paid Masunda deposits for a hunting safari.

In a provisional order granted by Justice Nicholas Ndou last Wednesday following an urgent chamber application filed by Masunda seeking to stop the eviction of the tourists, Justice Ndou ruled that Nkomo and his agents should stop interfering with the occupation and use of the lodge. He also ordered Nkomo not to interfere with hunting activities and let Masunda conduct hunting safaris in the area allocated to him.

In a letter written to Mutasa yesterday and seen by The Financial Gazette, Masunda’s lawyers charged that Mutasa did not serve their client with a notice of his intention to cancel the lease as stipulated under the Agricultural Land Settlement Act, which could have accorded Masunda an opportunity to make representations. The attorneys also say the annulment of the offer letter is motivated by improper motives since Nkomo has on several occasions failed in his bid to evict Masunda.

"It is a basic tenet and a fundamental of our law, whether customary or general, that a party is entitled to be afforded a hearing before a decision adverse to his interests is taken. Equally fundamental is the tenet that such a party must know the case he has to meet and be allowed time within which to prepare his defence," read part of the lawyer’s letter to Mutasa.

The legal representatives say they will resort to a court challenge in seven days if Mutasa does not reverse his decision to withdraw his land offer.

Masunda’s eviction is the latest in a series of blunders by the government in the execution of its jumbled land reform exercise. The government has, in the past six years, overridden court rulings in favour of former white commercial farmers who were dispossessed of their farmland and properties.

Critics say the government’s disrespect for the rule of law and property rights is to blame for the country’s economic woes. Besides battling a severe hard currency squeeze, the country is reeling from out-of-control inflation, officially estimated at 1 193.5 percent, a shrinking agricultural output and endemic poverty.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP