VP Munangagwa sucked into land dispute

Auxillia Munangagwa

VICE-PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife, Auxillia, reportedly confiscated title deeds for a farm owned by a co-operative in her Chirumanzu-Zibagwe constituency and replaced the co-operative’s executive with Zanu PF appointees.

The co-operative’s chairperson, Pio Musambasi told NewsDay that the incident occurred at Wadzanai Farm last Thursday.

Musambai claimed he was forced to hand over the title deeds, chant Zanu PF slogans and surrender his chairpersonship before a crowd of more than 200 Zanu PF supporters, who had been gathered for a rally at the farm.

 “A Zanu PF ward 17 councillor came to me and told me that there would be a developmental meeting with the MP at the farm,” he said.

“After addressing the meeting, Mnangagwa then said there was an issue she wanted to solve about the co-operative.

“She said the executive of the co-operative had overstayed and was made up of MDC-T supporters and it has to be replaced.”

Wadzanai Co-operative Farm, according to Musambasi, was registered in 1983 after about 171 families, who had been displaced from the land by the Rhodesian government, pooled resources and bought the landm, where they conducted various business activities.

But according to Musambasi, Zanu PF supporters started pushing to change the commercial property into communal land.

Contacted for comment, Mnangagwa denied claims that she had confiscated the farm’s title deeds, saying she only intervened to solve a dispute that had arisen among co-operative members.

“They have their title deeds, what would I do with them?” she asked.

“They invited me to preside over their differences that arose when some of them decided to support MDC. They had their elections while I watched. 

I did not interfere and I did not impose anyone. They had a misunderstanding with the executive, which had been in place for the past 14 years.”

This came after some Zanu PF members; Remigio Kunota and Christia Mushore addressed the rally urging Mnangagwa to remove the executive.

The following day, a Zanu PF district official visited the farm and offered to return the title deeds, but Musambasi told them he had already engaged lawyers over the matter. Newsday