Manhize villagers cry foul over land grab

   NATHAN GUMA 

GOVERNMENT-INDUCED relocations to make way for a US$1.5 billion Chinese-owned steel project are exacerbating food insecurity among Mushenjere villagers in Manhize, Mvuma, in the Midlands province. 

The Chinese steelmaker, Dinson Iron and Steel Company (Disco), has taken over arable land, affecting scores of households amidst an El Niño-induced drought that has left millions facing severe food insecurity. 

On 23 May, Local Government minister Daniel Garwe said the country needed US$3.3 billion, up from the initial US$2.2 billion announced in April by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to cater for 60% of the country’s population that will be food insecure until the next harvest in March. 

The situation could be worse for those families who find themselves at the mercy of displacement politics and forced relocation by companies such as Disco. 

Disco, a local subsidiary of Chinese firm Tsingshan, has been touted as Africa’s largest integrated steel project.

Its operations in Manhize have however condemned villagers to abject poverty and hunger.  

Some of the affected community members are living under intense fear as suspected state security agents are allegedly hounding them for protesting against the company. 

The involvement of these security agents who operate in plainclothes and drive cars similar to those used by the military and intelligence, betrays the deep links between the government and Chinese investors in Zimbabwe. 

Chinese investors have an obligation to protect, promote, respect and fulfil the rights provided for in the constitution whilst conducting their operations in the country, according to the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (Zela),

  Since 2021, more than 101 families from Manhize’s Mushenjere Village have lost their land to Disco’s operations, with once self-sufficient villagers now unable to produce food for their households, as they no longer have access to their allocated land. 

Investigations by The NewsHawks have shown that displacements have worsened food insecurity among the villagers. Over the years, Disco has been grabbing arable land once used for subsistence by the villagers. 

The company is erecting a wall around farmland and pastures in the area, further isolating families in Mushenjere Village from the traditional sources of livelihood. 

The investigation also revealed that an estimated 138 families from Kwaedza Village are facing a similar predicament as Disco has installed land survey pegs in the area.

 The villagers are originally from Rukovere, Mahusvu, Msasa and Unyetu villages in Chikomba district, Mashonaland East province, where they survived as subsistence farmers. 

In 1984, they were allocated land on farms purchased by the government under the “minda mirefu” (“large fields”) land reform programme initiated soon after Independence in 1980.

The NewsHawks saw the permits which were issued 40 years ago.     

  Climate crisis, stalking hunger

 Farmers who spoke to The NewsHawks said food production has largely diminished due to lack of farmland, exposing them to acute food insecurity, which has been worsened by the climate crisis. 

The probability of precipitation for Mvuma is also decreasing due to the El Niño-induced weather conditions, which have seen the country receiving record low rainfall levels, making the villagers more vulnerable to food insecurity. 

“When we were given that land in 1984, people were growing various types of crops like soya beans, tobacco, wheat and maize. Everyone would get between 60-70 tonnes. A bumper harvest was our claim to fame. We used to get more produce to the extent that we were given a mini-(grain) depot (close by) for ease of transportation,” said Nomore Mhike.  

“Tobacco farmers were able to send their children to top schools while building big houses. However, all that has changed lately. We are now buying everything, from maize to fruits – things that we used to produce on our own. Since 2021, we are buying all produce.” 

While the company convinced villagers that it was going to mine well away from farmland, it recently broke its promise and is now digging huge pits in fields while extending its plant, in addition to fencing off their farmingplots and pastures.

 “We no longer have anywhere to farm. They blocked passageways to the remaining fields, and almost the whole community is starving,” Mhike said. 

“It has become difficult to find even firewood. 

“When the company came, they just used heavy machinery to clear the land that belonged to us as a community.” 

Now the villagers no longer have any farmland and were unable to farm in the last agricultural season.

The villagers have lost livestock due to the displacements that have acutely reduced grazing land. 

“In terms of livestock, we lost most of it to the huge pits that were left by Disco. Even when we told them to rehabilitate them, no action was taken. Because of the wall which was erected animals cannot access grazing land,” Mhike added. 

As the company forced its way into the village, destroying arable land, villagers say they were not informed of the intentions of the settlers.  

 “No one communicated with us,” Mhike said. 

“It was only in 2023 that we started holding meetings with the company after realising that things were getting out of hand. We were struggling to make ends meet. We built big houses and our children are graduates. We could fend for them, using proceeds from the farm, and not from anywhere else.” 

Apart from farming in the fields, the villagers used to run successful horticulture projects, earning between US$7 000 and US$8 000 annually from 1985 to 2005. 

After losing farmland, the villagers no longer have any land to cultivate – harvesting nothing last season, and have been forced to rely heavily on meagre and irregular handouts from the company. 

Lovemore Turira, a farmer from Mushenjere Village, said the area has been experiencing massive loss of vegetation over the years, thereby contributing to the negative effects of climate change.   

On 23 January, Disco delivered two kilogrammes of flour, 10kgs of mealie-meal, two litres of cooking oil, two kilogrammes of laundry soap and 500 grammes of salt worth US$14 to families in Mushenjere village, a move seen by villagers as an attempt to test their resolve in demanding compensation.

 The villagers have been getting US$200 per family every month from the company since January this year, which they say is insufficient to cushion them from food insecurity worsened by the climate crisis. 

George Gwere, a community leader, said Disco should disburse royalties to cushion farmers whose livelihoods have been shattered due to loss of land, and even worsened by climate change. 

He said the worsening poverty is causing social decay, with young people slowly turning to stock theft, while women in the area now sell termites for a living. 

“Would it be nice if they would hear that people in Manhize are dying of hunger? The elderly, those around 70 years of age, have many health issues such as blood pressure (BP). One elderly person collapsed and was taken to Harare. On diagnosis, they found no other disease outside high blood pressure. All this is resulting from the emotional distress to the elderly facing relocations in Manhize,” Gwere said. 

Disco’s human resources manager, Joseph Shoko, said they are doing their best to cushion the villagers from hunger. 

“We are giving them US$200 which they sign for every month. I think this is enough considering that most people are not getting this from formal work,” Shoko said.

  “We have always tried to engage the villagers every time, and we are building good houses where some will be relocated. It is just that people are hardly satisfied.” 

Shoko said of the amount given to community members, US$100 was meant to buy food. “We could have done more. It is just that we are still in the process of building our project,” Shoko said. 

Weak lawsSection 74 of Zimbabwe’s constitution prohibits eviction in the absence of a court order issued after considering all the relevant circumstances – including consultation. 

However, this is unsynchronised with the Communal Land Act, section 10, which authorises the local government minister to set aside communal land for any purpose, after consultation with the local Rural District Council. 

The law permits the minister to order evictions, under certain limited circumstances, including with reasonable notice and compliance with the country’s constitution. 

The Communal Land Act also contradicts the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa, which Zimbabwe ratified. 

This requires, in article 3(1)(a), that states parties “refrain from, prohibit and prevent arbitrary displacement of populations.” 

Environmental lawyer Obert Bore says the government should put in place a framework for relocation and compensation to ensure that such problems do not recur. 

He said due to lack of a framework, there has been no uniformity in relocations that are done to pave the way for development.   

A framework on relocation is vital to ensure that communities’ rights and interests are adequately safeguarded, and to ensure that the process is inclusive and consultative for all stakeholders to negotiate before any relocations can be effected.

 Loopholes in compensationAn environmental and human rights watchdog, the Centre for Research and Development (CRD), poked holes into how Disco is managing the compensation of villagers who are losing their assets through relocations.  

“There is no compensation that is taking place. We are simply seeing people being moved without compensation at all. In some instances, we are just seeing disturbance allowances for villagers. It’s a token, really, because it will not help in any way,” said James Mupfumi, CRD director. 

“We are talking of people with land permits that were given by government as far back as 1984. Now, they are being moved. Some have been moved without any form of compensation.” Protests over evictionThere have been growing calls for Disco to urgently put together social safety nets to cushion the desperate community from climate-induced hunger. 

On 14 June, Manhize villagers blocked Disco trucks from accessing the plant as they protested against degrading treatment including arbitrary acquisition of their farmland without compensation, the resultant hunger and air pollution. 

Mary Tsiko (58) from Manhize said the villagers protested also because the company was arbitrarily taking their ancestral land and expressed concern that the dust was compromising their health. 

“Children are not going to school because our source of livelihood, which is land, has been taken away by the company. Many people are sick because of the dust that comes from the company’s operations. Our protest is to pressure the company to address our concerns,” Tsiko said.

 Since the protest, villagers are now living in fear and their freedom of movement has been severely restricted by security agents who seem bent on avert swelling protests against Disco.  On 9 February, seven women with babies and one man were whisked away from Mushenjere Village on Inhoek Farm in Manhize by plainclothes details and driven to Mvuma Police Station where they were detained for the night for alleged illegal settlement. 

Twelve others were arrested and appeared at the magistrates’ court in Mvuma on 14 February on the same charge of illegal settlement. 

The residents are children of permit holders who have been living on Manhize’s Inhoek Farm for 40 years but the permits that they have been using have no specific tenure, leaving them insecure. 

A day before the arrests, Mvuma District Development Coordinator, Jorum Chimedza, accompanied by plainclothes operatives and officials from the Lands ministry, held a meeting with villagers in Mushenjere. 

The delegation had spent more than four hours in a meeting with Disco management. 

Chimedza, who could not be reached for a comment, is reported to have told farmers that their children had occupied land illegally and must return to the area allocated to them in 1984.

 More families are also facing eviction from Inhoek Farm, where they were allocated land under the initial land reform programme that was intended to lessen overcrowding and poverty in communal areas. 

The evictees are children of permit holders who have been living on Manhize’s Inhoek Farm for 40 years. However, the land permits issued by the government have no security of tenure.

The permit holders at Mushenjere’s Inhoek Farm have for the past two months been locked in a wrangle with Disco to negotiate compensation for the loss of livelihoods and land caused by the company’s operations.