Mliswa slams ‘traitor’ Mnangagwa over Chilonga villagers treatment

HARARE – The Norton (Independent) member of parliament Temba Mliswa criticized President Emmerson Mnangagwa for betraying the citizens by caving in to the interests of the capitalists at the expense of the ordinary people.

It comes after a local dairy company (Dendairy) owned by white farmer Neville Coetzee with links to Mnangagwa was given the green light to evict at least 12,500 Chilonga, Chiredzi villagers from their ancestral lands.

“Are we about to reverse land reform? Maybe I should go to my ancestral land in Shurugwi and also tell our people to stop building because the government can come and take anything at any time,” Mliswa said.

“How much do 12,000 people cost compared to one farmer?”

Neville Coetzee, a farmer from Kwekwe and owner of Dendairy, intends to grow alfalfa grass to feed his dairy cattle.

The government has promulgated a legal instrument obliging the villagers of Chilonga to “definitely leave and with all their property the said land on the date of publication of this notice”.

The notice was posted by Minister for Local Government, Urban and Rural Development, July Moyo, who was captured with then-Vice President Mnangagwa in photos attending a Coetzee family party online.

Mliswa, who normally backs Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu PF despite being independent, broke ranks on Thursday and criticized planned expulsions in parliament when Tendai Biti, deputy chairman of the MDC Alliance, goaded him.

MDC Alliance President Nelson Chamisa meanwhile said the evictions were ruthless.

“Stop being heartless and cruel. The eviction of 12,500 villagers from Chilonga to Chiredzi for a grass milk project is criminal and heinous,” Chamisa said.