By Patience Chipembere
The eviction of over 12 000 villagers in Chiredzi to pave way for a grass project is ‘heartless and cruel, MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa said.
Recently, the government approved the project to allow a dairy company to use the land for the Lucerne grass.
Information says project will boost livestock production in the Lowveld and earn the country the much-needed foreign currency.
“Stop being heartless and cruel, evicting 12 500 Chilonga villagers in Chiredzi for a grass dairy project is a criminal and vile, Chamisa posted on Twitter. “ Chiyadzwa, Chingwizi, Chisumbanje green fuel evictions show disdain of citizens. Capital and profits must not undermine citizens’ rights, heritage, and dignity”.
Many reacted to the tweet, one Wellington Hokonya said “I would think Dendairy will fund the relocation of the 12K people, don’t rush to criticize before we hear both sides of the story otherwise no government would disenfranchise its loyal voters just like that….”
Another one said, “7 years down the line in Chingwizi we have no permanent homes, no land to farm, no dignity and they still want to add more…”
However, not everyone agreed with Adv Nelson Chamisa telling him that ” we have become a Twitter party with no direction” wrote @MaueraMoyo signing off by writing MDC Alliance Member. Another one by the name @bhud’fa wrote ” I don’t like Zanu at all but I don’t think they can just dump people like garbage like you are saying. Sometimes you take things out of context”
At the time of going to publish this story the Twitter handle for Adv Nelson Chamisa had 342 retweets and 1320 likes
The villagers find it very difficult to leave their ancestral lands, at the same time fearing their fate to be that of the Chivi people who were moved to Chingwizi Camp due to the construction of the Tokwe Mkosi dam and not all of them got the help of the government after they were moved.
