The five year old land ownership dispute between Chisumbanje villagers villagers and Billy Rautenbach’s Green Fuel Company has resurfaced again with ugly clashes resulting in the detaining of a one year toddler being witnessed in the area.
The one year toddler Ashley Mugovera was detained at Chisumbanje police station on Monday together with her mother Regina Chigidi after being picked while they were busy in the contested fields in the Chinyamukwakwa area of Chisumbanje.
Speaking to this reporter, the mother of the toddler, Regina Chigidi said they were arrested together with four other villagers including Kazi Mugovera, Florence Mugovera, Samson Mugovera and Chipo Chiripinda.
“We were busy in our fields when we saw police officers wielding button sticks disembarking from a police truck approaching towards us and we never bothered because this has been our land for years,” said Chigidi.
She added that the police officers ordered them to stop what they were doing and when they questioned why they were being forced off their fields, they were arrested and taken to Chisumbanje police station.
The police later returned and arrested Vaina Ndlovu, Edmore Ndlovu and Hasani Simango who were all detained at the police holding cells for three days.
An eye witness from the area, Samson Mashava said the police fired teargas to disperse villagers who were resisting being evicted from their fields.
“The police officers, who have become a permanent feature in our area, came and fired teargas to disperse the villagers who were asking to know why they were being forced out of their pieces of land,” said Mashava.
He further questioned why Green Fuel was acting in bad faith by grabbing what was rightfully theirs and using police officers when they know that there is no clarity over ownership of that land in question.
During the arrests, there was drama as police and farmers chased after each in an epic battle that lasted for almost an hour.
Member in Charge at Chisumbanje Police only referred to as Nyamuzinga could not entertain the media, saying he had no power to comment on the issue.
Claris Madhuku who is a community representative and the Director of Platform for Youth Development, a youth pressure group fighting for land justice condemned the continued arrest and harassment of villagers as inhumane and very political.
“We will have to consider suing some of the arresting police officers and the Member in Charge for this insensitive and unlawful arrest of innocent villagers due to police overzealousness despite the land dispute and boundary challenges being well recorded and can only be
settled through dialogue and not through arrests ” Madhuku fumed.