The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu Senior Reporter
More than 200 people will be resettled at Irene Farm in Emncwazini, Matobo North, a move that has set the tone for a clash between Government and the Angilcan Church which owns the farm housing Cyrene High School. In March a senior Anglican official told this paper that the church would close Cyrene High School and Clinic if Government did not reverse the takeover of the farm which was announced through the Government Gazette of 14 November 2014.
In a recent interview with Sunday News, Bishop Cleophas Lunga, the head of the church in Matabeleland, could not confirm that the church was contemplating the closure of Cyrene High School and Cyrene Clinic but said the acquisition of the farm “has far-reaching implications”.
However, in a clear show that Government would not succumb to the church’s threats, Cde Abednico Ncube, the Minister for Provincial Affairs in Matabeleland South, yesterday told villagers in Emncwazini’s Ward 25 near Figtree that Government had allocated the farm for resettlement and beneficiaries would soon be receiving land permits.
“The 2 500-hectare farm is now yours. We want to do things legally so you will next week be visited by district lands officers who will inform you when you will get your A1 permits. You have to settle legally and the permits will prove that you belong here,” he said.
The whole farm measures 2 540,8 hectares.
Cde Ncube said those that had settled illegally should come forward and follow the correct procedure or risk being arrested.
He said proposals by the Anglican Church officials not to resettle people were baseless and did not put the people first. Officials at the school said they did farming activities that sustained the mission and the takeover by the Government would effectively see the closure of the school.
They argued that Government did not gazette land that is owned by churches but it instead gives churches land.
Cde Ncube encouraged the people to desist from vandalising perimeter fences around the farm.
“When you move in please do not vandalise the fence around the farm. It serves to protect your livestock from straying into the highway and also it prevents them from causing accidents and killing people when they stray. Human life cannot be replaced when lost so we need to keep the fences intact,” he said.
Cde Ncube assured the villagers that they were not going to be removed from Irene Farm and even proposed that they change the name to something more suitable.
“No one will remove you from here, this is your place and we have to change this colonial name to a better one. You are also free to have your own grave site as this is now our home, no one should be buried in the city now, you can do it right here,” he said.
Cde Joshua Ndlovu, the Zanu-PF chairman for Ward 25, said their stay at the farm since they occupied it in 2000 had seen a number of challenges.
