Emelda Karenga sits on the doorstep of her makeshift house pondering her next move.
She is sombrely thinking about the uncertainty and calamity that is about to befall.
“I don’t know what to do. I have four children and I don’t know where to go with them,” she said wetting her eyes, adding that “this has been my home for the last sixteen years.
Just a stone throw away, Jasper Mugoni is tendering his maize field.
“This could be my last year farming in this field. Actually, this might be my last crop,” he said with resignation written all over his furrowed face.
Karenga and Mugoni are just two of several families that are going to be evicted after High Court ruled that they have illegally settled on a land belonging to Pfugari Properties in Whitecliff.
The Zimbabwe government had promised to compensate the property developer but reneged on its promise.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga promised Whitecliff Residents that no one was going to be evicted while campaigning in 2018.
“We are in talks with the private land owner and no one is going to be evicted,” Chiwenga said amid applause at a rally in 2018.
However, talks have stalled and Pfugari Properties have activated the writ of execution.
Councillor Luckson Maronga pleaded with government to compensate the land developer.
“As local leadership, we can not blame Pfugari because it’s their land. There is no land for free in Zimbabwe.
“Government is the one that settled people here and should compensate Pfugari,” he said.
The evictions and probably demolitions comes at a time people have already built properties; they want to safeguard their assets.
