WE SPENT a few days in the Chilonga area of Chiredzi, visiting and listening to compatriots in Chiredzi South and East constituencies. We met with ordinary citizens, community leaders and traditional leaders.

We travelled huge distances to places such as Chikombedzi, Malipati, Boli and Gonarezhou. We saw and heard from a tortured, insecure and angry citizen in the Shangaan communities so dominant in this part of the Lowveld.

This is a community that has suffered displacements twice before. In the 1960s, they were removed from the Hippo Valley area to make way for sugar estates. They were then ejected to pave way for huge wildlife reserves – Gonarezhou National Park and Malilangwe Reserve. They subsequently rebuilt their lives in the south eastern Lowveld in areas mulcted by tsetse fly, high temperatures, wild animals, poverty and infrastructure deficits.

Years of alienation, isolation, exclusion and reification make these communities feel like outsiders. Without access in some cases to Zimbabwean services such as radio, mobile phone networks, gas stations – never mind jobs, hospitals and schools – there is greater connection with Mozambique and South Africa.

The displacement of these populations planned by the regime to make way for a Dendairy project to grow animal fodder – lucerne – is thus the ultimate invasion and insult to these communities. They have been told 12,500 people will be ejected and 9,000 hectares taken under Phase One. When Phase 2 and 3 are completed, a massive 21,000 hectares of their land would have been confiscated.

For a community that participated in the liberation struggle that brought independence in 1980, they don’t understand why they should be ejected for only their land to be given to one white man and his company. They already do contract farming for Delta and Ingwebu, so they can’t understand why they can’t contract farm lucerne for the white man, a pal of the ruling elites.

In view of massive pieces of underutilised agricultural land dotted in their region, they don’t understand why the same land is not being used for the lucerne project. They don’t understand why cattle grass has become more important than people or the small grains they produce. They strongly feel that that they are victims, not just of greed and avarice but also of tribal rejection as an ethnic minority.

The Shangaan people of Chiredzi know that the regime has, in 41 years, been cruel and extractive against ethnic minorities. They have suffered displacements, genocide and exclusion.

They only demand to be left in peace with their land, their graves, their shrines and their livestock. They demand schools, bridges, hospitals and jobs. They simply ask for respect and the right to be treated as equal citizens. They simply ask for the right to be called Zimbabweans.

The post Tendai Biti breaks down the Chilonga Issue appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

Let’s begin with the aforementioned announcement of Sunday 7 June 2021. The Vice President Constantino Chiwenga expressed the governments intentions to evict over 1000 Chiredzi east and South Families from the 10000 hectares of land that they are currently inhabiting. This move is being made to make way for a Lucerne grass farming project by Dendairy which aims to increase their cattle feed. In simpler terms, over 1000 families, most of which were born  and raised in these areas, have buried their loved ones in these areas, are now being asked to leave their heritage behind to make make room for cow food.

With that background, this would seem to have no relation to the Land reform program. How then are people relating the two events? Here’s whats being considered;

During the land reform era, Darren Coetzee, the owner of Dendairy, was already following his farming career. Interestingly, unlike most white farmers whose land was seized, Darren Coetzee was among that estimated 10% of white farmers that  managed to retain his farm.This has been boiled down to the assumption that this farmer and businessman has friends in high places and therefore used those forces to evade land reform measures.

This idea was consolidated during a memorial service of Theresa Coetzee in January 2016 where President E.D Munangagwa was in attendance. Sources claim that during a speech at this memorial the president spoke of how he saved  the family’s farm and businesses from invasions during the land reform time.

In essence, the Land reform program might not be directly linked to the new plans to evict over 1000 Chilongo families, however it might indicate something noteworthy. The force used by the Coetzee’s to guaranteed their stay on their farm while other white farmers were being evicted, could very well be the same force that will almost guarantee their acquisition of the 10000 hectares of Chilongo villager’s land. Should the Chilongo villagers be hopefully and delay packing their belongings? If power is indeed what the Coetzee family has to back them, then the track record thus far hints that the villagers need not keep holding onto that hope.

However, where there is no darkness without light. Some benefits have been pointed out. One of the major benefits that seems to be reiterated by pro-eviction citizens is that this move will lead to more employment thereby benefiting people. Well, if over 1000 families will be employed through this initiative, then, why not? But if indeed there seems to be no great benefit to the community, or if the benefits will primarily be felt by the company and other high officials who are said to hold shares in Dendairy, then perhaps the old adage was wrong and darkness can exist without light.

Vice President Chiwenga pointed out the following that some view as an advantage:

“Because of the Corona virus pandemic, we will never get back to our traditional arrangement of living. We are going to start a new living arrangement of living.”

Could this move really be helpful in ushering the villagers into what might be the new norm brought about by the corona virus? Will the government be able to  relocate the villagers into a better living arrangement space that coincides with the times?

Let us know what you think of that below.

The post The Dendairy Saga: Cows vs Lives? appeared first on Provoker Magazine.

The dam has been said to have been over 90% full as of  21 January 2021. This raises the risk of the occurence of very damaging floods in the next few couple of days. Escalating the overfill off this dam is the consecutive fall of heavy rains on and around  the catchment area of the dam  which only raises the water level.

The government seems to be on top of the situation as a plan has been put in place to move 250 families out of harms way. In addition to this effort, The Civil Protection Unit (CPU) has ensured that when disaster strikes they are prepared to save lives on last minute notice.  They have put in place an Air Force of Zimbabwe chopper to be on standby to quickly aid those who might become stranded when the flooding begins.

Experts state that its not only the area surrounding the dam that will be affected, but  including the confluence of two rivers in Chiredzi North, if there happens to be a backflow in Tugwi while Runde is flooded.

The post Families in serious danger as Tugwi Mukosi dam continues to swell appeared first on Provoker Magazine.