Source: The Standard
Villagers from Goromonzi's Yafele area have said their livelihoods are under threat following the encroachment of urban developments into their area.

The residents have formed Simukai Rural Residents Trust,

a platform through which they were fighting for land allocation and utilisation programmes which do not disturb communal farmers' lives.

"Simukai was registered at a time when residents of communal villages within the vicinity of Goromonzi district offices woke up to the realisation that their farming land was being seized for the development of a new residential peri-urban suburb," the Trust's coordinator Masimba Manyanya said. "Up to now it is not apparent as to who signed away the communal farming lands in Yafele and also other surrounding villages."

Manyanya said communal farmers in Yafele lost important grazing lands and an annual production of over 4 000 kilogrammes of maize.

"The loss of farming land spar-ked a cumulative downward cycle spiral," Manyanya said. "There was the intensive utilisation and degradation of small homestead based farming plots, household incomes plummeted and food insecurity and poverty worsened.

"Soon households were scrounging for income for basic household needs such as food, health and school fees."

Facing numerous problems including expanding population needs, massive unemployment, dwindling incomes, HIV and Aids, Simukai at some point mobilised for non-farm business projects such as, mushroom growing but these collapsed at conception or midstream due to lack of training.

"Despite a succession of consultations since the issue of land seizures exploded in Yafele village 13 years ago nothing really positive or substantial has materialised," Manyanya said.

"Communal residents are in a perpetual state of anguish and anxiety as new suburban stands are being pegged on a daily basis, encroaching on the little land we still have as the sprawling greater Harare encircles and overtakes us."

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