Land sold for beer, sadza
A dispute involving patrimony has erupted and spilled into Chief Mutasa’s community court after some deprived relatives dragged a developer there on accusations of unfairly acquiring land inherited from their late parents.
The Nyagomo family alleged that Gift Mufakose acquired the land from their late uncle, Julius in a dubious deal that saw the deceased being bought beer and sadza for 20 years in exchange for the contentious land.
The family, which was represented by Sydney Nyagomo, appeared before Chief Mutasa’s community court, arguing that the transaction was unjust and the land was grossly undervalued.
This, he said, was denying them their rightful inheritance.
Nyagomo said the late Julius’ children and other family members were supposed to inherit the land which Mufakose occupied in 2003.
Julius died in 2021, and his family is demanding the land back.
“We seek justice and restitution because it is not fair for Mufakose to continue occupying that land knowing very well that he never paid anything for it.
He only bought Julius beer on a daily basis. We all know that Julius was a drunkard, and some even thought he was insane.
“Mufakose was in the habit of gifting Julius with sadza each time he was hungry, and we believe this was how he coerced him to cede the land for a song. We were never consulted, and the deal was dubious because the deceased did not know what he was doing,” he said.
Nyagomo claimed that the land was family property since time immemorial, and they want it back.
“The truth is that Julius’ surviving children are suffering, and we believe that if Mufakose gives us back the land, maybe their mothers will start some income generating project and take care of their children. We are now old and no longer have the energy to work for them,” he said.
Nyagomo said they tried to seek justice when Julius was still alive, but backed off after he attempted to commit suicide.
“He told us that he would kill himself, but we did not take him seriously. When we took the matter to court, he consumed poison and this forced us to withdraw the matter to save his life. He would argue that Mufakose paid him money for the land and since he was the owner of that land, we could not do anything about it. However, now that he is dead, we have decided to revisit the matter. We want Mufakose to vacate the land in question,” he said.
After Julius passed on, the family
reported the matter to then acting Chief Mutasa’s court, and lost the case.
They proceeded to appeal the court’s ruling at Mutare Civil Court, seeking an order to evict Mufakose.
The application was dismissed, and the matter was referred back to Chief Mutasa’s court.
Mufakose denied the allegations that he bought the land with beer and sadza, insisting that he had paid a fortune for it.
“I bought that land with my hard-earned money and even the village head and headman knew about this deal. I never bought the land with beer or sadza as they allege, and the seller, Julius was in his right mind and even had a wife and children. No one took him for a mentally challenged person; otherwise I would have never entered into a deal with him. It is only that he is now dead that they are claiming the land back when I have already developed it,”he said, begging the traditional leader to dismiss the matter.
Mufakose said the magistracy also dismissed the matter after realising that the Nyagomos had no case to argue.
“However, they keep troubling and dragging me to the courts. The community court also said I was the rightful owner of that piece of land after I presented my witnesses and papers to prove that I had legally bought the land. They just do not care about all of that,” he said.
Chief Mutasa told the Nyagomo family that he could not deal with the matter any further, and advised them to engage Mufakose and ask for a piece of land that will be allocated to Julius’ children.
“I advise you to approach Mufakose and reason with him,” he advised.
Mufakose said he was open for dialogue as long as the family is not violent in their approach.