On Zimbabwe wildlife park
tivities have been registered with the ministries of Environment and Agriculture,” he said.
Chipaziwa said the Lands ministry had authorised his settlement on the conservancy.
“If you think the settlements were irregular, you address that question to the relevant authorities. As far as I am concerned I followed the procedures. I am confident that whatever I am going to do will be supervised by (the department of) National Parks to ensure we co-exist with the wildlife,” he said.
The Parks and Wild Life Act (Chapter 20:14) prohibits human settlements or agricultural activities on conservancies without an accompanying law.
There is no publicly available information showing that the settlement of the new farmers in the park was enabled by a statutory instrument or any other relevant legislation or decree.
Zimbabwe’s current ambassador to the UN, Albert Ranganai Chimbindi, is also a beneficiary of the settlements on the MBRC conservancy.
Before assuming the UN position, Chimbindi was Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Ethiopia between 2014 and 2020. Previously, he had served as the permanent representative of Zimbabwe to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.
In an interview from his base in New York, Chimbindi indicated that he intended to produce both crops and livestock.
“I want to do both livestock and horticulture on that piece of land. There are some discussions going on between us and the ministry of Environment to help us on how to operate. There are also people from National Parks who gave us conditions on how we must operate,” he said.
Chimbindi hung up when asked if he did not think settling on the conservancy would disturb the wildlife.
A wildlife expert who requested anonymity said MBRC had an automatic special status as an Intensive Protection (IP) zone by virtue of holding protected species like the rhino.
“Whether the people who are settled in the conservancy were given authority by the lands department or not, the position is that any area with an IP status must not be occupied and must be kept intact for the wildlife.
“Even if the rhinos may not be seen in some areas in the conservancy, it does not mean the land is lying idle. Each rhino needs spacious home range. Some people could be saying the conservancy is too big but, for breeding purposes, each rhino needs about 50 square kilometres,” the expert said.
Air Commodore Marcelino Jaya, who is based at the Josiah Magama Tongogara Airbase in Gweru, is also on the list of the conservancy settlers. The general did not respond to calls and he blocked the investigating reporter following several Whatsapp messages that blue-ticked.
Available documents show that he is the one who urged fellow settlers to block the investigating reporter.
Another senior soldier who got a plot in the conservancy, Captain Benson Munyanduki, first asked to “talk in person” but later ignored requests for information relating to his occupation of an area on MBRC.
When contacted for comment, he asked to “talk in person”.
He did not return further requests to give additional information.
Other notable settlers include Charles Sungwa, a chartered quantity surveyor running a consultancy in South Africa, Clive Mphambela, the Finance ministry’s chief director, and Collen Masunda, a local businessman.
Mphambela insisted that he observed due process when he was allocated a plot in the conservancy and argued that his activities would not negatively impact the wildlife.
“We are working closely with the ministries of Environment and Agriculture. Technical staff have been deployed to optimise land use. The area was already a mixed-use farm,” he said.
Masunda, Jaya and Sungwa did not return requests for comment despite reading the Whatsapp messages.
Blocked
Records show that members of a Whatsapp group comprising the settlers resolved to block the investigating reporter, with one of them wondering how the journalist got information relating to the occupation of MBRC.
Garry Killea, the MBRC chair, was non-committal when contacted for his comment.
“As a trust, all MBRC actions are governed by the MBRC constitution,” he said.
Killea referred further questions to Doug King, the head of the Chinyika range, one of the targets for resettlement.
King described the resettlement of the people in the range as “detrimental” and said they had not been officially notified of the switch of jurisdiction from the Environment ministry to Lands.
“We are at the core of the conservancy and hold the bulk of the wildlife. Dividing up the conservancy will be detrimental to the wilderness, wildlife and eventually the community.
“Breaking up these size areas into small holdings is not conducive for game ranching and it will leave very little natural habitat for the wildlife,” said Doug, who is also worried that the new settlements will shrink grazing land for the wild animals.
Doug said he was preparing a court challenge and did not intend to pre-empt the case. He, however, cast aspersion on the applications for settlement in the conservancy.
“Some of the letters that are being brought by people coming to occupy our land are dodgy. No stamp, no signature,” he lamented.
Several women who have been helping manage the conservancy fear that the occupations will disrupt their livelihoods.
“I have been working here for the past 11 years and my family’s income is here. Our livelihoods are now at stake because of what is happening. We risk being relieved of our duties because the area we were covering now has new settlers,” said Memory Nkiwane.
Miriam Mberikwazvo, another conservancy employee, is heartbroken.
“The chaos that is happening has a bearing on my career because it means I will not have the space to do my work. Together with other women, we had developed a passion for wildlife and seeing the animals’ habitat being desecrated like this brings pain to our hearts,” she said.
Before the current crisis, a female professional hunter and guide, Shylet Gutu, says of MBRC in a testimony: “The conservancy has a captivating ecological phenomenon, which is of great interest to environmentalists.”
Investigations revealed that the owners of the conservancy tried to seek help from the Zimparks Ngezi zone manager, Trumber Jura, who is in charge of the area that covers MBRC.
Jura reportedly told the authorities that he could not help them in any way because “things are already in motion”.
But Jura refused to speak out. “You can talk to Mr (Tinashe) Farawo, the Zimparks public relations manager. I represent Zimparks whose PR (public relations) manager I have referred you to,” he said.
Farawo, however, said Zimparks was not responsible for the crisis taking place inside MBRC.
He said his department had not recommended people to be resettled in the conservancy.
“We don’t distribute land. Our business is wildlife management and conservation. We don’t issue offer letters,” Farawo said.
Kwekwe district acting lands officer, Simbarashe Chijuwa, who has been seen inside the conservancy pegging pieces of land for the new settlers, said he was not permitted to speak to the media.
“You will need to speak to the provincial lands officer. She is the one mandated to speak on that issue. We are not allowed to speak to the media,” he said.
But the Midlands provincial lands officer, Kudzai Katiyo, said: “We need to seek clearance from the director of lands before we give out information. That is the procedure,” she said.
In follow up enquiries days later, she said she had “failed to get clearance from my superiors”, so she could not comment on the matter.
Cephas Magaudze, the director of lands at the Lands ministry refused to shed light on the settlement of people in the conservancy while the responsible minister, Anxious Masuka, repeatedly ignored calls made to him,
Tafadzwa Mugwadi, the Zanu PF director of information and publicity denied that the party had resettled people in the MBRC ahead of the 2015 by-election.