By Shorai Murwira
Former Registrar General Tobaiwa Mudede has landed in hot soup after he has been dragged to court over a land dispute with a colleague in Mazowe.
The court heard that Roti Gadzikwa, the applicant and Mudede were allocated land at Ballineety Farm in Mazowe which is about 375 hectares.
However, Mudede decided to be ‘greedy’ and extended his roots into Gadzikwa’s portion yet Mudede was was initially allocated subdivision 1 at the farm but has also applied for more land from subdivisions 1 to 13 causing a boundary rift between the two.
“There are ongoing disagreements concerning land usage arising from the disputed boundary and as a result of the disputes, I made a complaint to the Lands Commission to investigate Mudede’s unlawful conduct,” said Gadzikwa.
According to Gadzikwa, he only occupies subdivision 14 and now he is complaining that Mudede has also extended his lines and deprived him of at least 60 hectares.
However, Gadzikwa has applied for an order to stop the unlawful conduct including.
He said Mudede continues to develop the land despite awaiting decision by the land commission.
“Despite the fact that the Commission is yet to make its determination on the complaint, Mudede without any authority or good or unlawful cause shown.
“…is continuing with his habit of illegally changing boundaries and putting fences, effectively depriving me of close to 60 hectares of my farm land,” he said.
The farmer accuses Mudede of denying him use of some of his properties,” he said, adding that the disputed area contains some boreholes which he uses to irrigate his crop but now Mudede is denying him use of boreholes and electricity transformers in the disputed boundaries.
He also said that Mudede has threatened to evict some of Gadzikwa’s workers from the compound without notice or a court order.
” He denies my workers use of communal infrastructure at the worker’s compound,” he said.
“There is no other lawful remedy available to me to ensure that Mudede is barred from persisting in his unlawful conduct, pending determination of my complaint with the Commission, other than by way of the Honourable court interdicting him,” he said.
He also said that the Land Commission does not have statutory powers to direct Mudede to stop his unlawful activities before completing its investigations.
