Government in crisis meeting over Chilonga eviction
The ongoing Chilonga Village Lucerne grass project fiasco reportedly forced the government to converge and have a crisis meeting, The Standard reports.
The meeting was reportedly held last Thursday and it was chaired by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and the issue of possible sabotage of the project was reportedly discussed.
A source that attended the crisis meeting told the publication that:
It was established that there was a discrepancy between policy and the legal instrument. The project had been in the pipeline for a long time and there was nothing sinister about it. It is a plan by Rhodesians many years ago, in the 50s.
What we have just done is to now to say we have water in Tugwi-Mukosi and Lake Mutirikwi and plans to build Runde-Tende and a good water basis and plan. That statutory instrument doesn’t align with the Communal Lands Act and it is ultra vires the constitution.
We are correcting that. We met to whip people into line and by Monday (tomorrow) an announcement will be made and heads will roll. Things will be addressed; we will have a proper statutory instrument.
Last week a Masvingo magistrate issued a temporary order barring the government from evicting the villagers. President Mnangagwa’s Press secretary George Charamba described the order as a temporary relief and even said the project was highly misunderstood.
However, investigative journalists, The NewsHawks said the government was interested in the area simply because diamonds were discovered in the area.
–The Standard
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