HARARE – A Mazowe gold miner who was allegedly displaced from his farm by the late former president Robert Mugabe has gone to the High Court seeking to evict his widow, Grace.
Langton Chapungu says he was removed from 110 Smith Fields Farm in Mazowe back in 2008 and has been fighting his eviction since then with no luck.
He once approached the courts with similar summons and applied for a spoliation order to repossess the farm and equipment which was purportedly seized upon the farm grab.
In the present application, Chapungu cited Grace Mugabe as the respondent.
“The defendant (Grace) occupied my farm or caused my farm to be occupied by unknown people. The defendant went further to build a school in the farm without any notice to me. Despite myself having a prospecting license to prospect gold in the area, the defendant caused some Chinese to occupy my homestead and a white man to farm on the land,” Chapungu says in court papers.
“Despite several claims and letters to them and a visitation to the farm where I saw Mr Jemwa a representative of Grace Mugabe, it seems the defendant is not willing to give vacant possession of the farm to the owner.
“I issued summons under case No.8314/19 but surprisingly the case was withdrawn by unknown people who forged my signature hence these summons.”
Chapungu wants Mugabe’s widow “and all those claiming occupation through her” evicted from the farm.
The matter is pending.
Since Mugabe’s ouster from power in a November 2017 coup, his family has not enjoyed peace.
Several lawsuits have been filed against his widow in various disputes including over mines and farms. Recently, a traditional court convicted her of unlawfully burying her husband, but she has appealed.
The former first lady has been living in Singapore for more than a year, and family sources say she has no plan to return to Zimbabwe fearing persecution.
