Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Resettlement, Air Marshall (Retired) Perrance Shiri came to the aid of Jeffrey Howard Sommer, a German national who was facing eviction proceedings. Sommer who owns the 80 hectares farm, Chiredzi Wildlife Investments, had been locked in a long-standing dispute with Gilbert Nyasha who argued that he had been allocated the land by the government.
However, Shiri told High Court judge Justice Amy Tsanga that the land had been originally allocated to Sommers and that it was protected by a Bilateral agreement. As a result, Justice Tsanga dismissed Nyasha’s application for eviction saying that Sommers was the legitimate owner of the land.
Justice Tsanga said,
The second respondent, being the minister responsible for land allocations, averred that the applicant (Nyasha) was offered an offer letter when another beneficiary had already been allocated the same farm.
Furthermore, he averred that the applicant had already been issued with a notice of intention to withdraw the said offer letter. Significantly, he emphasised that the applicant cannot be the holder of a valid offer letter under these circumstances and specifically suggested that the proposed solution is to grant him an alternative piece of land. He equally highlighted the fact that the first respondent has invested heavily on the land and is in the business of crocodile farming.
…It cannot be for the courts to simply dismiss or ignore the executive’s policy and directives in protecting certain lands from acquisition. The applicant has no basis for seeking the eviction of the current occupier as the first respondent is not unlawfully on the land. I, therefore, find application to lack merit.
More: New Zimbabwe
crazy how !
As africans, we can’t even travel to german let alone can’t even own anything german yet they can come and have
That’s not the issue. The issue is; can Nyasha improve or at least maintain Sommer’s level of production on the farm? History of similar take-overs tells me that Nyasha we feed hay/stock-feeds to the crocodiles after running out of money to buy meet for them, leading to the collapse of the venture. Leave the German alone. If you go to German and prove to them that you can produce better than them (citing your successful venture here in Zimbabwe), they will most likely sell you more than 80-hectares! Do not cloud sound economic decision with the Malema-style nationalism that has left once-prosperous Zimbabwe in an economic quagmire. Maita basa Rtd. Air Marshall Shiri. Musaperera apapo. Re-possess unproductive farms that the previous regime wasted on the black elite, and re-allocate them to carrier farmers with a good track record- be they black or white. Its about economics, not race!
A german national that was born there and lived his whole life there…more fake news