BY NIZBERT MOYO
CHIEF NYANGAZONKE Ndiweni of Kezi in Matabeleland South has read the riot act against corrupt village heads whom he accuses of parcelling out land without his consent leading to the mushrooming of illegal homesteads under his jurisdiction.
Villagers had claimed that the chief was parcelling out land to rich people and his associates, who were outsiders at the expense of locals.
Last Wednesday the chief held a meeting to resolve the land dispute between him and his subjects at his homestead where it emerged that there are some villagers, who were masquerading as village heads and were responsible for the illegal settlements in his area.
He said he had to put an end to the allocation of stands by the village heads after realising that there was a lot of corruption in the whole process being spearheaded by the village heads.
“I cannot tolerate this kind of behaviour from village heads some of whom are elderly men and women. There is nothing that people can learn from them.
“We will carry out investigations after that and take disciplinary action against those found wanting and this will set an example to those who would be perpetrators in future,” Chief Nyangazonke said.
“There are a lot of illegal settlements here being caused by some of these village heads. They do not report disused land so that they will repossess, frustrate those looking for land and make a killing using the land.’’
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He said the issue of land should involve a village assembly, council and Agritex officials adding that no one will fail to get land from his area for as long as the whole exercise is done in an orderly manner.
Chief Nyangazonke said they were yet to come up with a course of action to take on those that got land illegally, adding that they too have a case to answer.
He said he had seen names of people coming from as far as Mashonaland being registered by the village heads. He, however, said he abided by the constitution which states that no one should be discriminated against.
A villager Mxolisi Moyo alleged that he was made to pay R30 about two years ago to his village head after he was promised land which he never got up to now until he took his case to the chief.
He said the chief then promised to assist him while indications are that the village head in question has since been suspended on other disciplinary cases.
“The village heads have also been found wanting in the distribution of farming inputs and donations coming from non-government organisations. I have received a lot of complaints from the people,’’ Chief Nyangazonke said.
