War Vets Block Operations At Minister's Farm

Masvingo, March 14, 2010 - Higher and Tertiary Education Minister and Zanu PF heavyweight in Masvingo, Stan Mudenge is seeing red, after a group of war veterans led by the combative and self-styled provincial chairman, Isaiah Muzenda, besieged his Chikore farm demanding that the minister co-exists with black families which he evicted last month.

The war veterans, the cornerstone of Zanu PF in the chaotic land grabs that have attracted international condemnation, have literally stopped Mudenge and his workers from making any operations at Chikore farm, in Masvingo West, which the minister grabbed from white commercial farmer, Tim Buncan, about three years ago.
 
Mudenge,who had been sharing the farm with about 50 landless villagers who first invaded the property in 2003, last month hired Zanu PF youths to evict the families from the farm to enable him to have complete control, a move that did not go down well with the ex-combatants.
 
The war veterans led by Muzenda,whose resentment for Mudenge is well-known, have vowed to stay put at the farm until the Zanu PF secretary for External Affairs in the party's politburo agrees to co-exist with the evicted families.
 
A super-charged Muzenda blasted Mudenge for abusing the people and being heartless.
 
''He is very cruel, some of the families that he chased away are the ones who invaded the farm first but he allowed them to stay that time so that it would appear as if the people were the ones in need of land yet he knew he had other ideas. However, no matter what we will not allow him to do anything here until he re-instates the families that were chased away. He is a very cruel and insensitive man,''said Muzenda.
 
''We fought for this land when people like him where enjoying in the comfort of universities in foreign lands only to come back after independence and again want to grab what we have given to the people,''added Muzenda.
 
Mudenge has already been under fire for running down a promising greenhouse project at Chikore farm that was built by Buncan who was dispossessed of the property under the guise of land reforms.
 
Buncan used to export flowers and grow tomatoes among other fresh produce which earned the country foreign exchange. It is reported that the infrastructure at the farm has been rapidly deteriorating since Mudenge took over about three years ago.