RESIDENTS of Retreat Waterfalls have lobbied Government to act on the land barons who are selling pieces of land on area reserved for Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ).
“The area was given to the residents for agricultural purposes. The land barons forcibly took the land for residential stands at a time the residents have offer letters,” the group said in a petition copied to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Ministry of Local Government, the National Assembly and Zimbabwe Republic Police.
“The land barons are threatening the farmers by wearing Zanu PF regalia and chanting slogans,” further reads the petition.
The land barons were said to have been working with senior government and ruling party officials.
“We are lobbing the Government… and other relevant authorities to have an urgent intervention and stop this barbaric act,” the residents added.
The Retreat Waterfalls residents cry comes as the Justice Tendai Uchena chaired-Land Commission recently made public the findings on circumstances surrounding the plundering of State-owned Land in and around Urban Settlements.
Uchena’s report, said President Emmerson Mnangagwa needed not look far to establish the identity of these urban land grabbers.
The report indicated that the “the grab-and-parcel-out” job was the work of those in government, including very powerful political elements across the spectrum.
The Land Commission report carries names of people implicated in the “daylight robbery” of State-owned land – about 400 of them – all reportedly doing it for various reasons, ranging from personal aggrandisement to political maneuvers.