Luke Tembani’s children forced out of the school their father built
NYAZURA- Two primary schoolchildren have been forced out of a school their father, Luke Tembani, built after the family was evicted from their farmer in defiance of a SADC Tribunal ruling protecting the pioneering black commercial farmer.
Tembani, a successful pioneer indigenous commercial farmer was evicted a fortnight ago by a Mutare Deputy Sheriff from the remainder of his Minverwag Farm at Clare Estate Ranch, which he bought in 1983. The new owner, Takawira Zembe claims to have bought the farm from the Agricultural Bank of Zimbabwe (Agribank), formerly Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC).
Tembani’s twin children Luke and Terrylee, who were in Grade 3 at the time of eviction at the farm’s Chimwanda Primary School have dropped out of school as a result of the displacement. They are now staying with their parents in Rusape where they are temporarily occupying a single room.
So insulting and distressing is the fact that Tembani is the one who built the farm school in 1986. The school opened its doors to students in 1987, offering free education to 321 pupils from Grade 1 to Grade 7.
Tembani said the huge cost incurred during the construction of the farm school was one of the reasons why he ended up failing to service his debts to AFC.
“In 1990 I had to purchase school furniture which cost me a lot of money. This was worsened by the national drought of 1992/1994 and as a result I became very short to service my AFC loans…It really pains me,” said Tembani.
Meanwhile, Zembe has proposed an “outrageous” proposal to allow Tembani’s children back on the farm school.
In a letter to Tembani, Zembe asked the former owner to first withdraw his appeal against the eviction and cede total ownership of the farm to him for Luke and Terrylee to be allowed back on the farm school.
Zembe said he would be willing to accommodate Tembani’s children at the farm on condition that he provided a maid to take care of them.
Tembani, who became one of the country’s first black commercial farmers shortly after independence in 1980 was evicted from his Nyazura farm in Manicaland which he has occupied for the past 26 years in defiance of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal ruling barring his eviction.
The Windhoek-based Tribunal recently ruled that the repossession and sale of the farm by the State-run Agribank in order to recoup an outstanding loan was “illegal and void.”
The Tribunal ordered the government to take all the necessary measures through its agents not to evict Tembani or his family from the property and to stop interfering with his use and occupation of the farm.
But the government has refused to comply with the regional Tribunal’s orders. Justice and Legal Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa unilaterally pulled Zimbabwe out of the SADC Tribunal, a decision which was disproved by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
This story was extracted from Edition 18 of The Legal Monitor. Available to download here in pdf format. More about Luke Tembani via ZimOnline.
