Woman, Baby Arrested Amid Masvingo Land Dispute
By Staff Reporter
MASVINGO- A 42-year-old woman and her two-year-old child were reportedly detained by police in Masvingo after she resisted the alleged takeover of her Clipsham plot by workers said to be acting on behalf of Chivi North MP Godfrey Mukungunugwa.
Nancy Rikitai Gwaindepi and a neighbour reportedly spent a night in police cells before being released the following afternoon, according to media reports. The incident reportedly occurred after a group of men arrived at Gwaindepi’s plot and began erecting a fence enclosing four adjoining plots, each measuring about 1.5 hectares.
Gwaindepi told Masvingo Mirror that she pleaded with the workers to stop, saying the development would leave her family without a home. She said a police Mahindra vehicle subsequently arrived carrying two female officers and a driver, after which she, her child and a neighbour were taken to the police station. Her husband, Prichard Tafirenyika Masocks, said the family had been left distressed by the developments.
“Four days ago, my wife was arrested, and she slept in the cells. Two of my children have just left home, and we do not know where they are. They fled because of the situation,” he was quoted as saying. Gwaindepi alleged that the fenced area was part of a wider land takeover affecting more than four plots and claimed the developments would leave Mukungunugwa with at least six hectares in the Clipsham area. Workers putting up the fence reportedly told the family they had been sent by the MP.
The family says it has lived in Clipsham since 2002 and is among more than 700 plot holders facing eviction from the peri-urban agricultural area. Affected residents reportedly include war veterans, former police officers and civil servants who say they have occupied their plots for more than two decades. The residents claim to hold offer letters issued by the former Ministry of Lands and say they were given verbal notices to vacate.
They further allege that new beneficiaries, including senior Government officials, have been allocated the land through fresh documentation from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works. The claims have not been independently established. Some affected plot holders also alleged that the process had been conducted without sufficient transparency and said repeated attempts to obtain information from relevant Government departments had not yielded answers.
Gwaindepi said the dispute had taken a heavy emotional toll on her family. She also claimed that two of her children, aged 16 and 19, had left home amid the escalating dispute and that the family did not know their whereabouts. Another affected resident, 72-year-old Moffat Chikozho, reportedly said he had lived on his plot since 2002 and was disturbed by the developments.
MP disputes allegations
Mukungunugwa confirmed that a dispute had occurred but denied personally taking over Gwaindepi's plot. He told Masvingo Mirror that the land belonged to his brother, Day Mukungunugwa, who he said had been allocated the property by the Ministry in September 2025. The MP described Gwaindepi as an illegal occupant who had been given notice to vacate.
He said the area had since been designated for agro-business plots and that his brother had been communicating with the occupants. Mukungunugwa also denied visiting the plot himself.
The MP's comments contrast with claims by the family that workers putting up the fence said they had been sent by him.
Meanwhile, Masvingo provincial police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa said Gwaindepi's name did not appear in police records. “I have checked our records, and we don’t have that name,” Dhewa said. Mukungunugwa, however, confirmed that Gwaindepi had been arrested.
The circumstances surrounding the arrests, the ownership and allocation of the disputed plots, and the status of the affected residents' offer letters remain subject to clarification from the relevant authorities. Mukungunugwa is the elected ZANU PF MP for Chivi North.
Masvingo land dispute
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