By Lauren M. Poteat
The Washington Informer
Despite living in a democratic country, more than 100 families in Zimbabwe are now being forcibly evicted from their home farmlands by First Lady Grace Mugabe.
In spite of a recent court hearing last month that ruled against the first lady’s move to seize farmland for personal gain or to expand her empire in the farming area of Mazowe, many villagers who have lived in the area for over 17 years still find themselves being forcefully displaced by law officials.
The NewZimbabwe.com reported that a village spokesman said, “It was not easy for us to hand over our petition to [the Southern African Development Community], because of the absence of Swaziland’s embassy here in Zimbabwe. Initially, we approached the South African embassy which referred us to [the] Botswana embassy, saying Botswana was the SADC secretariat, which again referred us back to the South African embassy, saying that they were the ones representing Swaziland here in Zimbabwe.”
The village spokesman continued: “They finally received our petition and took down our contact details before they promised to get back to us.”
