600 Gutu homebuyers told to leave as Army asserts claim over Chatsworth land
About 600 people who bought residential stands from Gutu Rural District Council (RDC) have been ordered to leave land at Gertnel Farm, near Chatsworth Business Centre, after the Zimbabwe National Army said the property belongs to it.
The stand owners say they paid the council for plots and received leases and inspection papers. Some have already completed houses and moved in. Others are still building. The Army has deployed soldiers to stop further construction, leaving families who have spent years saving for homes facing an uncertain future.
The dispute centres on land at Chatsworth that the council sold for residential development from 2018 onwards. Buyers paid US$3,000 or more for their stands, according to residents. They say their dealings were directly with the local authority, not informal intermediaries, and that they hold documents issued by the council.
Gutu RDC chief executive Alexander Mutembwa confirmed that the council and the military are in talks. He said they plan to meet to settle the boundaries, but the council has not yet decided how it would respond if the stands cannot be regularised.
“There is an issue over the stands which council sold in Chatsworth. We are engaging the military and will hold a meeting with its leadership to discuss the boundaries,” said Mutembwa.
For the residents, the boundary discussions have yet to bring relief. Rejoice Nheya said the buyers obtained their plots from the council and kept the paperwork they were given.
“We bought these stands from Gutu RDC and we have all the necessary papers, including leases and inspection forms issued by council,” said Nheya.
Some households have finished building and are living on the land. Others have partially completed homes or have been told not to continue construction. Residents fear that the money already put into their stands and buildings could be lost if they are forced to leave.
One buyer, who asked not to be named, said he bought a stand in 2022 while serving at 4.3 Brigade in Gutu. He said military leaders had assured officers at the time that there was no problem with the development.
“It is shocking that the same Army which gave its officers the green light to buy the stands is now saying the farm belongs to it,” he said.
He said he had invested more than US$3,000 from his earnings. He also claimed that more than 15 serving military officers had bought stands in the area, and that some had houses at different stages of construction.
“It is painful to be stopped after spending years saving and investing in the stand. It feels like losing everything,” he said.
The Army’s account differs. A senior military official said the farm had belonged to the military since the Rhodesian era and described the transactions as “Sabhuku deals”, adding that the ZNA would not take responsibility for them. Another military source disputed that the Army owns the Chatsworth property, saying its shooting ranch is in Bikita and that the Chatsworth land had only been borrowed for a limited period.
The competing accounts leave the dispute focused on the farm’s history and boundaries, as well as the council’s authority to sell the plots. The 4 Brigade public relations officer, Emmanuel Muchazivepi, referred questions to the ZNA’s public relations directorate in Harare.
Tafara Chavizha said residents had met the council several times but were still waiting for action.
“We paid everything to Gutu RDC and all our papers are in order. We have held several meetings with council, which promised to engage the Army but there is no progress,” said Chavizha.
Mutembwa said compensation had not yet been discussed as a settled option. When asked whether the council would compensate affected residents if it could not regularise their stands, he said the matter had not reached that stage.
A dispute with wider echoes
The Chatsworth stand owners’ dispute comes amid other land conflicts involving Zimbabwe’s armed forces and civilians. At Ingleborough Farm in Mazowe, a prolonged fight over occupation and allocation of agricultural land reached a tense stand-off when army officers blocked a High Court sheriff carrying out an eviction.
The 603-hectare farm has been at the centre of competing claims involving diplomat Tryness Kabiti and farmer Wonder Mukwaira, both of whom received allocations under the land reform programme, as well as parties linked to the military. The Zimbabwe Defence Forces was allocated the whole farm in 2017 for institutional agricultural use, after which the government sought to withdraw the farmers’ offer letters.
In 2024, the Supreme Court ordered the Lands Minister to provide written reasons for withdrawing Kabiti’s allocation. The minister did not do so within the set period, and the withdrawal was rendered invalid. A High Court eviction order was later issued against occupants of the property.
When the sheriff arrived with police support to enforce the order, Colonel Ncube and Colonel Malamba came with uniformed soldiers and blocked the road. The sheriff had already loaded occupants’ belongings on to trucks and travelled about two kilometres from the farm before the convoy was stopped. The goods were returned, and the sheriff and police left after a stand-off.
“Execution could not proceed as the Sheriff was coerced to suspend execution by Colonel Ncube and Colonel Malamba, who came with uniformed soldiers and blocked the road and our vehicles such that we could not do anything for the whole day. They threatened violence as they were armed. The Sheriff was only allowed to leave after returning the goods removed,” the Sheriff said in a report to the High Court.
A separate military land dispute has unfolded at Falcon Golf Club in Harare’s Hatfield suburb. The club says it has operated on 17 stands under a lease with the City of Harare dating from 1971 and running until 2070. The Air Force of Zimbabwe has asserted control over the premises under a government cantonment designation.
Falcon trustee Alex Elias Mashamhanda said Air Force officers entered the premises on 5 September, removed doors and ceilings and began repainting buildings. He said club members were later barred from the clubhouse and other facilities during an Air Force golf event. The club’s initial court application was withdrawn by consent in September. It then filed a fresh High Court review application on 5 October, challenging the government decision behind the cantonment designation.
“They invaded our premises without our permission taking down doors and ceilings and started painting the 3rd respondent’s colours on to our buildings,” said Mashamhanda.
The Falcon dispute involves the Air Force rather than the Army, and a leased golf course rather than residential stands. But, as in Chatsworth, residents and land users are confronting military claims over property they say they have occupied or acquired through arrangements with other authorities.
A further confrontation over land was reported in 2018, when farmers near Domboshawa resisted eviction to make way for an army base. The farmers sought a court ruling against the establishment of the base and reported that soldiers had fired gunshots and tear gas during the dispute.
At Chatsworth, the immediate next step is the meeting Mutembwa says the council plans to hold with military leaders. Until the parties settle who controls the land and where the boundaries lie, buyers who say they followed council procedures remain caught between the council that sold them the stands and the Army now ordering them to leave.