ZANU PF MP Ordered To Vacate Farm

Hurungwe East legislator Chenjerai Kangausaru MP (ZANU PF) has been fined and ordered by the courts to vacate Chitonga Farm he had occupied using forged documents.

As reported by NewsDay, Karoi magistrate Moreblessing Makati on Friday sentenced Kangausaru to three months in prison with the option of a US$300 fine following the legislator’s conviction in November last year. Read the ruling:

The accused (Chenjerai Kangausaru) is hereby fined US$300 or three months in jail. He is also ordered to vacate the gazetted farm (Chitonga subdivision 1) by 30 April 2024.

Kangausaru was found guilty of using forged offer letters to occupy Chitonga Farm in Hurungwe measuring 26 hectares.

He was subsequently charged with violating Section 3(1) of the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act [Chapter 20:28] referred to as occupation of gazetted land without lawful authority.

Prosecutor Progress Maponde told the court that Kangausaru unlawfully occupied Subdivision 1 of Chitonga Farm in the Tengwe area sometime in November 2014.

The State represented by the Hurungwe district lands officer, was the complainant in the matter.

Tichafa Tendayi who resides on sub-division 1 of Chitonga Farm was the informant. Reads the court papers:

Tichafa Herbert Vincent Tendayi is one of the beneficiaries and a lawful occupier of sub-division 1 of Chitonga Farm, Tengwe, Hurungwe while one Dube is the second beneficiary.

Kangausaru in his unlawful occupation of sub-division 1 of Chitonga Farm, Tengwe, Hurungwe within Mashonaland West Province does not hold any tenure document.

The accused person had no legal right to act in the manner he did. The complainant has a valid offer letter that justifies his occupancy of the disputed piece of land.

During the trial, Kangausaru argued in his defence that he had an offer letter from the Lands Ministry signed by the former minister, Douglas Mombeshora, in February 2014.

Kangausaru submitted two offer letters to the Hurungwe district lands committee which were issued by Mombeshora but bore different signatures.

In a letter presented to the court, a former director in the Lands ministry, Cephas Magauze said Kangausaru had no official documentation to prove his occupation of the farm was lawful. Said Magauze:

The ministry records show that you (Mr Tendayi) are still the beneficiary of subdivision 1 of Chitonga measuring 262 hectares in the Hurungwe District.

Your offer letter of 3 November 2014 was only withdrawn on 12 March 2015 to correct your initial and surname and a replacement offer letter was done on the same day.

Chenjerai Kangausaru does not have an offer letter for subdivision 1 of Chitonga, according to Ministry records.

More: Pindula News