By Mncedisi Buhali
ABOUT 65 villagers from Springs Farm in Kensington, Bulawayo, have dragged four Zanu-PF youth officials to court for allegedly terrorising them and threatening to demolish their homesteads while claiming to be officials from the President’s Office.
The four allegedly threatened villagers and told them that they were above the law, as they continued to violate their peace by intruding into their homes.
The court heard this when Andrew Sakala, the Zanu-PF ward two youth league chairperson; Kholwani Mlambo, the administrative secretary; Rita Amos, the district committee member and Farirai Jecha appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Ms Evelyn Mashavakure. The villagers were seeking a protection order against the four.
The villagers wanted Ms Mashavakure to order the four to abandon visits to their homesteads and to keep a distance of 100 metres.
Ms Mashavakure granted the order and advised the four to preserve peace with the villagers.
“I cannot really say the four accused keep a 100-metre distance away from the villagers’ homesteads, but I am ordering them not to be violent towards the villagers, not to threaten them in any way and not to demolish their homesteads,” she said.
According to court papers filed at the Bulawayo magistrate’s court, Sakala, Mlambo, Amos and Jecha reportedly threatened the villagers, as they claimed to be members of the President’s Office and Zanu-PF cadres, while bragging that they were above the law.
It is alleged that they persistently shouted obscenities at the villagers, intruded their homesteads and even sought to demolish property belonging to them, leading the villagers to approach the court for protection.
However, the four claimed to have never acted violently or in an abusive or threatening manner towards the villagers or any person in particular and have never at any point represented themselves as members of the President’s Office.
They stated that they were indeed members of the Zanu-PF youth league, thus their work duties and job description involved interacting with the villagers and they had worked tirelessly in making the village what it is today and were bemused by allegations that they were destroying property and harassing the villagers.
They stated that they could not be ordered not to visit the village as they worked in the area and also had friends and relatives who distanced themselves from the application.
They stated that, if the court deemed it fit to consider the application, then it was preferable that a reciprocal protection order be granted and that the so-called “applicant and its representative”, do not disturb them from carrying out their work duties.
Legal practitioners representing the two parties were, Mathonsi Ncube Law Chambers for the villagers and Pundu and Company for the four accused. Sunday News
