Tinashe Sambiri|Villagers in Chilonga area, Chiredzi have been subjected to rejection and abuse over the years, MDC Alliance vice president, Hon Tendai Biti has said.
Hon Biti led an MDC Alliance delegation to Chiredzi for a fact-finding mission at the weekend.
Below is Hon Biti’s statement:
We have spent a few days in the Chiredzi #Chilonga area visiting and listening to compatriots in Chiredzi South and
East.
We have met with ordinary citizens, community leaders and traditional leaders.
We have travelled huge distances to places such as Chikombedzi,Malipati Boli,Gonarezhou.
We have seen and heard from a tortured, insecure &angry citizens in the Shangani communities so dominant in this part of the Lowveld.This is a community that has suffered displacements twice before in the 60s they were removed from the Hippo Valley area to make way for sugar estates.
They were then ejected to pave way for huge eco reserves , Gona Rezhou National Park & Malilangwe Reserve.
They subsequently rebuilt their lives in South Eastern Lowveld in areas mulcted by tsetse fly, high temperatures, wild animals, poverty & infrastructure deficits .
Years of alienation isolation exclusion & reification make these communities feel like outsiders.Without access in some cases to Zim services such as radio,mobile networks gas stations never mind jobs hospitals & schools there is greater connection with Mozambique&South Africa
The #Chilonga displacements are thus the ultimate invasion and insult on these communities.
They have been told 12500 will be ejected & 9000 hectares taken under phase one . When Phase 2& 3 are completed a massive 21 000 hectares of their land would have been confiscated
For a community that participated in liberation struggle they don’t understand why they should be ejected for only their land to be given to one white men They already do contract farming for Delta & they can’t understand why they can’t contract farm #lucerne for the white man
In view of masses pieces of underutilized agricultural land dotted in their region , they didn’t understand why 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 & avarice but also of tribal rejection as an ethnic minority.They know that the regime has in 41 years been cruel & extractive against ethnic minorities.They have suffered displacements , genocide & exclusion
Vice President Tendai Biti
