Obert Mpofu Behind Human Rights Lawyer, Siphosami Malunga Farm Seizure

ZANU PF Secretary for Administration Obert
Mpofu is behind the illegal seize of a farm belonging to human rights lawyer Siphosami Malunga
and his business partners.
An offer letter dated 25 June 2021 written by
Agriculture minister Anxious Masuka to Mpofu’s Mswelangubo Farm shows that the Zanu PF
bigwig was given 145 hectares of land at Esidakeni Farm already owned by Malunga, Zephaniah
Dhlamini and Charles Moyo. The trio own the
farm.
“I’m pleased to offer to Mswelangubo Farm the
following farm, which was compulsorily acquired
in uMguza District Matabeleland North province
for use by the Mswelangubo Farm,” Masuka’s letter says.
Mpofu is working with the Central Intelligence Organisation co-deputy director-general
Gatsha Mazithulela and Zanu PF Matabeleland
North provincial minister Richard Moyo to take
grab the farm which the owners bought.
Mazithulela, a distinguished scientist, is accused of trying to squeeze himself into the Esidakeni Farm horticultural project and intimidating
its owners with arrest or seizure if they did not
accommodate him to offer them political protection. The farm owners also say they hold Mazithulela accountable for the disappearance of some
of their documents at the provincial land offices
in Bulawayo as at one time he communicated in
the middle of the night with one of them while in
possession of those missing documents.
These details emerged after shareholders of
Kershelmar Farms (Private) Limited, which owns
the farm, approached the High Court seeking an
order to stop the government from seizing their
land for redistribution and barring Mazithulela
and others from illegally interfering with their
business. The owners have got an eviction order
from the invaders.
The case on the ownership and contested acquisition of the farm is still pending in the courts.
Kershelmar is co-owned by businessman
Charles Moyo, Zephaniah Dhlamini, a scientist
working at the National University of Science
and Technology (Nust), and Malunga, the Open
Society Initiative for Southern Africa executive
director and son of the late nationalist Sydney
Malunga.
The court challenge was a culmination of a
series of recent events that characterised the battle over the farm. The court action by Malunga
and partners comes after they were issued a 14-
day notice to vacate a portion of Kershelmar, a
productive farm that has purportedly been allocated to, among other beneficiaries, Dumisani
Madzivanyathi, a Bulawayo businessman who
is also a lecturer at Nust where Mazithulela was
partly educated and worked as pro-vice-chancellor.
Madzivanyathi is known barred from interfering with tne farm operations.
Mazithulela, who has a colourful curriculum
vitae, graduated with a PhD in genetic engineering at the age of 27, and worked in the United
Kingdom, United States and South Africa in scientific, biotechnology and nuclear facilities. He
also previously worked in the government.
The applicants in main case are Dhlamini,
Moyo and Malunga, as well as their company
Kershelmar, while the respondents include Lands
and Agriculture .Masuka, Matabeleland North
chief lands officer, registrar of deeds, Mazithulela,
Madzivanyathi, CIO officer Reason Mpofu and
minister of State for Matabeleland North province Richard Moyo — who is spearheading the
farm seizure.
Reason Mpofu, who has also been allocated a
piece of land on the farm, is Zanu PF administration secretary Obert Mpofu’s nephew. Obert
Mpofu, a former minister, visited the farm in
March. The farm owners say Mazithulela, Richard Moyo and Obert Mpofu are the prime movers
behind the attempted property seizure.
They also say the three misled the minister,
Masuka, into gazetting the farm through falsehoods, including that the property had previously
been acquired by the state when it was not and
that it was being underutilised when it is highly
productive.
Malunga, Dhlamini and Charles Moyo say
they bought the farm from its previous owner and
own it, hence they are heavily invested in it. After
buying the farm, they invested in infrastructure,
rehabilitating boreholes, main water reservoir, irrigation system and homestead.
To do this, the farmers obtained two loans of
about US$230 000 for their horticultural project.
Due to their productivity, they have already repaid US$110 000.
They started working on five hectares, but
quickly increased that to 30ha and this year they
are going up to 55ha. The total irrigable part of
the 530ha farm is 85ha, which they intend to utilise as their business grows.
Apart from horticultural activities, Malunga,
Dhlamini and Charles Moyo have a commercial
beef herd of 150 cattle, 50 goats and 4 000 free
range Sasso chickens. They are planning to increase those numbers significantly.
The farm employs 45 permanent workers and
250 seasonal employees.
The farmers have invested over US$100 000
this year alone and planted eight hectares of onions, six hectares of butternut, six hectares of tomatoes (150 000 plants).
“Ever since we took occupation, we have managed to turn the farm into the envy of many. It
therefore did not surprise me that sometime in
December 2019, the fourth respondent, Gatsha
Mazithulela, who was then pro-vice-chancellor
at Nust, and work colleague, approached me and
asked to be included in Esidakeni Farm project.
I must point out that he is known to the second
(Malunga) and third (Charles Moyo) respondents
as well,” Dhlamini says in court papers.
“The untenable request that he made still required that I run it by my fellow shareholders and
directors. I did and they took the position that
there was no room for additional shareholders.
Gatsha was however awkwardly insistent.”
After a series of meetings, exchanges and events
marking the intensification of the battle over the
farm, Dhlamini says: “On 24 December 2020, I
received a call from Gatsha who advised me that
our farm had been acquired by the state. I was
obviously concerned about the levels of Gatsha’s
interest in matters that pertain to the farm. I was
particularly perplexed that Gatsha seemed to
know more about the farm than us the owners.”
Malunga also made it clear in a no-holdsbarred account that Mazithulela is behind the
attempted farm seizure.
The farm owners say it is clear beyond reasonable doubt that Mazithulela is acting out of
self-interest and malice, while abusing his top
CIO office to grab private property using government departments to facilitate the unlawful seizure of land from local indigenous people, which
in itself is illegal.
In a letter to Masuka — who has distanced
himself from the farm seizure, dated 14 June,
conteskting the property grab, Malunga, Dhlamini and Charles Moyo said they stand to lose over
ZW$60 million in potential revenue from their
horticultural project if the greedy and malicious
disruptions do not stop. — STAFF WRITER.