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Zanu PF youths accuse ministers of grabbing land, gold claims

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ZANU PF youths in Manicaland have accused some unnamed Cabinet ministers from the province of allocating themselves vast tracts of agricultural and gold claims and holding onto them for speculative purposes.

ZANU PF youths in Manicaland have accused some unnamed Cabinet ministers from the province of allocating themselves vast tracts of agricultural and gold claims and holding onto them for speculative purposes.

BY KENNETH NYANGANI

Mandiitawepi Chimene
Mandiitawepi Chimene

The party’s provincial youth chairman, Mubuso Chinguno, made the claims during an inter-district meeting in Mutare on Saturday where he threatened to mobilise youths to go to the farms and gold claims.

“Here in the province (Manicaland) there are gold claims, there are ministers and senior government officials who are occupying the gold claims for speculative purposes and that’s being selfish,” he said, appealing for Provincial Affairs minister Mandiitawepi Chimene’s intervention.

“There are selfish individuals, minister Mandi Chimene, please help us to solve this issue. Youths are being chased away from the gold claims and police are putting their syndicates to mine gold, this should be solved immediately,” he said.

The outspoken provincial youth leader also claimed that some senior government officials in the province owned multiple farms.

“We have held various conferences where we have discussed that youths should also be given farms, but no one has benefited. There is the issue of downsizing the farms, some senior government officials in the province have 5 000 hectares, others have 3 000 hectares and it’s not normal. It’s very unfair that someone is doing nothing on a 2 000-hectare farm, we don’t accept that type of administration. As youths, we are going to demand the downsizing of the farms,” he said.

Mubuso appealed to Chimene to help in the regularisation of gold mining claims held by party youths.

“Please, minister Chimene, help us. (For) youths to be regularised to mine gold in the province, we need money to start our businesses,” he said.