Mugabe’s nephew contests eviction order

One of former President Robert Mugabe's nephews, Robert Zhuwao, has been ordered to vacate his 232 hectares farm in Mashonaland West. New Zimbabwe reports that Zhuwao is the brother of former Cabinet Minister Patrick Zhuwao who is now in exile, while his late mother, Sabina Mugabe, was the former leader’s younger sister. In court papers filed at the High Court in Harare, Zhuwao claims he was offered the farm under the government’s controversial land reform programme in 2004 and he his contesting Land Minister Perrance Shiri’s order. ‘The offer was made in terms of the Agricultural Land Resettlement Act. I accepted the offer and a clear contractual agreement between the Ministry of Lands Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Settlement and myself.’ He claims the respondent ‘has no jurisdiction to withdraw my offer letter because the Enabling Act does not grant him the powers to do so … it is only the President who can cancel or withdraw offer letters’. The matter is yet to be set down for hearing.