Buhera South constituency legislator Joseph Chinotimba (Zanu PF) has filed a High Court urgent chamber application challenging his son’s eviction from a farm in Chipinge.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Chinotimba, through his lawyer Jonathan Samukange, filed a joint application with his son, Edwin and cited H De Foiard Brown (Private) Limited and Lands minister Douglas Mombeshora as co-respondents.
Chinotimba’s application followed a recent High Court judgement which was entered in Foiard Brown’s favour, effectively evicting him from the property which is cited as the remainder of Strepie of Hofstede measuring 164,6548 hectares.
The legislator, however, claims the order was given without his knowledge and participation and thus he was seeking the court’s intervention to have the matter brought back to court for hearing.
“I am assisting my son who was allocated the farm and has a valid letter. As a result, my son is in lawful occupation and possession of the farm since December 2014,” Chinotimba said.
“I was not served with the application nor notice of hearing and neither was my son served with it. I understand that the notice was served at Concession and on an employee who did not even appreciate the importance of the documents, but later handed them to Ranganai Mupfumbu on the day of the hearing.”
He added that when the lands committee took his son for a tour of the disputed farm, he was present and witnessed everything that transpired on the day in question.
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He further told the court that Edwin had spent a lot of money clearing the land which had been lying idle after being gazetted by government.
“2nd applicant (Edwin) has spent money on electricity and 10 security officers to look after the macadamia nuts as they are prone to thieves,” Chinotimba said.
He told the court that the company had won a previous court case due to his absence.
Chinotimba further said Mupfumbu could not be able to contact him on time because he (Chinotimba) was attending his mother’s funeral before proceeding to his constituency.
He said he had no knowledge of the company’s claims that it bought the farm, claiming that the company was being used as a front by whites, in a bid to defeat the land redistribution programme. The matter is yet to be set for hearing.
