Ernest Buseti, who faces charges of unlawfully occupying State land at Umvutcha Farm, has an offer letter regularising his and other settlers’ occupation of that land, according to his lawyer.
Buseti was arrested after he led a group of people to occupy the farm owned by Alister Michael Fletcher.
Read: https://cite.org.zw/two-arrested-for-umvutsha-farm-invasion/
The disputes over the farm date back several years after the land was erroneously declared agricultural land instead of municipal land while the property falls under municipal land and must be governed as per provisions of Statutory Instrument (SI) 212 of 1999.
However, when Buseti, who is in custody, appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Shepherd Munjanja on Tuesday seeking bail, his lawyer, Bartholomew Mhandire said the group had offer letters and had been paying rates to Umguza Rural District Council (RDC) since 2008.
During that court appearance, the court heard from the investigating officer, Detective Roy Mushayi of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID’s) Law and Order Section who opposed bail noting there was a possibility the accused could interfere with witnesses and invade the farm again.
In response, the accused’s lawyer said his client deserved bail.
“Surprisingly the witnesses are unknown even to the investigating officer and accused person as well. The resettled farmers were resettled by the Ministry of Lands at Umvutsha Farm in 2008. These farmers were issued with offer letters and regularising documents from the Umguza RDC, which is the responsible local authority they built structures and paying rates since 2008,” said Mhandire.
Mhandire told journalists that when court resumes on Wednesday, they will formally apply for bail countering all the issues raised by the investigating officer.
“The State will respond and the court will make a ruling,” he said.
Mhandire said in 2019, a third party in the form of Fletcher then approached the courts, alleging that the land where the resettled farmers were resettled belonged to him and, hence was private property and not part of the gazetted farm.
“Unfortunately the resettled farmers had no gazettes as evidence by that material time and the courts ruled that without the proof that the land was gazetted, it has no option but to order the eviction since Fletcher produced the title deeds,” he said.
“The resettled farmers started to appeal from 2019 until November 2023 when the Supreme Court ruled and confirmed the resettled farmers’ position that indeed the land was State land, it was gazetted land and any other court which had purported to deal with the matter had no jurisdiction.”
Mhandire said the import of the Supreme Court order meant once land had been gazetted, an aggrieved party cannot go to the courts as there is a remedy as provided for under the constitution.
“The same constitution has been clear, one will have to go through the Ministry of Lands, then the Land Board who will then make a recommendation to the president because in essence a gazette has been effected by the president, so if it’s to be set aside, automatically it should be through the president,” said Buseti’s lawyer.
“The resettled farmers have offer letters. They were issued with certificates of occupation by the Umguza RDC, they occupied and built on those structures on the land, only to be evicted in 2018.”
Mhandire said the offer letters, which were issued to the resettled farmers were “never set aside.”
“They were never revoked by the Ministry of Lands so the eviction order which ordered the eviction of these resettled farmers cannot be said to set aside the offer letters,” he said, adding that Buseti and the other resettled farmers were not evicted not by the Ministry of Lands but by Fletcher,
“Surprisingly now the State is confirming the farmers’ position since 2018 when the legal disputes arose that it gazetted land but surprisingly Fletcher is still in occupation of that land however the resettled farmers are now being charged for occupying the gazetted land without authority, which is not the position,” said the lawyer.
