Former Cabinet Minister Jonathan Moyo has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government of being retributive after the government grabbed his farm without compensation ostensibly because it is being underutilised.
Moyo was notified of the withdrawal of the land in a letter dated December 11, 2019, by the Lands and Agriculture minister Perrance Shiri.
Moyo and his wife Beatrice, who lives on the 623-hectare Patterson Farm in Mazowe, are being represented by Atherstone and Cook Legal Practitioners.
In their opposing papers filed at the High Court, the Moyos argued:
The decision implicates a breach of administrative law standards in that it is substantively unreasonable in the extreme and constitutes state-sanctioned theft.
The land that has been taken away from me is land that I acquired from the state in terms of a transparent process. The state has not paid me back the money that it took from me in terms of the agreement concluded between the parties.
Moyo further argues that he is being punished for exposing how the July 2018 presidential election was rigged by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) in favour of Mnangagwa in his book, Excelgate.