By A Correspondent| Today on the 9th of February 2024,over 300 villagers from Mahachi village in ward 24 under Chief Musikavanhu stormed and jammed the Chipinge Magisttates court over a pending land dispute with Chipinge Rural District Council.

The Magistrates court in Chipinge was not convinced that the villagers were properly brought before it and had to allow the villagers to go back home as Chipinge RDC puts her house inorder.

Some of the warned and cautioned statements signed by the villagers were shambolic and needed to be reworked to correctly state the charge for the villagers .

It was also embarassing to fathom why more than 300 villagers would be brought to court on one single day without processed dockets,thereby causing chaos at the Magistrates court.

The lawyer for the villagers Professor Lovemore Madhuku working through Advocate Tazvitya, remains convinced that his clients who are indigenous natives of Mahachi village since time immemorial have no case to answer.

Meanwhile, 500 households from Munyokowere village in ward 5 of Chipinge RDC have been summoned by Chipangayi ZRP today on the 9th of February to come to Chipangayi pilice station on the 10th of February 2024 over similar charges of staying illegally on a gazetted land.

This case is before the courts with Chipinge RDC having been given a High Court order not to interfere with the villagers of Munyokowere and Kondo.

Munyokowere, Mahachi, Kondo and Maunganidze villagers are facing the threat of displacement and dispossessions due to a land dispute backdated to 2018 when the second republic replaced the Mugabe regime .

Platform For Youth and Community Development – PYCD is working closely with a number of national based civic society organisations to defend and protect the rights of the villagers.

Only dialogue and not the courts and the police will be able to provide a sustainable solution to this land dispute in question.