VILLAGERS in Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland North have appealed for help to repossess their communal lands including grazing fields that have been invaded by outsiders.
According to the villagers, outsiders in connivance with some traditional leaders have pushed them out of their farming and grazing fields.
At a recent community meeting in Ntabazinduna, one elderly villager appealed to authorities to resolve the land dispute before it turned violent.
“We no longer have land, but people from afar are taking all the land,” the villager said.
“Where are you Matabeleland chiefs when all this is happening? I am not talking politics, may I not be hunted by people at night.
"We do not have any grazing lands now after some people were settled there from Beatrice."
Former Ntabazinduna chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni said he was aware of the land dispute involving locals and outsiders.
Ndiweni, who still insists he remains the Ntabazinduna Chief, said the invaders will be evicted, and their property destroyed.
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"In Ntabazinduna people will be evicted in their numbers, and we will go to courts to demand that they pay compensation because they have insulted us in doing so," Ndiweni said.
"Some will be removed from Ntabazinduna to leave their houses, boreholes and various properties and these will be used to establish schools and clinics."
Ndiweni was controversially fired as chief in 2019 by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa then ordered the immediate seizure of the chief’s government-issued vehicle and all state property in his possession.
However, there was an uproar from certain quarters who argued Ndiweni’s removal was politically-motivated as he spoke against government atrocities.
Ndiweni said communal land was not for sale.
"Those people are criminals, the communal stand or virgin land is not for sale,” Ndiweni said.
“If you want a virgin land you go to a local traditional leader who takes the letter to the Chief who then approves that one has been allocated land after consultation with the subjects around that land," he said.
Ndiweni said traditional leaders in Ntabazinduna were investigating cases of rampant communal land grabs by land barons.
