Former Masvingo Provincial Minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti has come out swinging against his successor, Shuvai Mahofa, accusing her of allegedly trying to relocate 20,000 people settled in Nuanetsi Ranch in order to corruptly accommodate Zanu-PF linked businessman, Billy Rautenbach.
Bhasikiti says he has written a letter to President Robert Mugabe allegedly exposing Mahofa. Last week, Mahofa told Studio 7 that the families who were first moved from the Tokwe Mukosi basin due to flooding will be moved to seven farms that have been identified by the government.
Nuanetsi Ranch has been at the centre of a dispute between government and a private company, Development Trust of Zimbabwe (DTZ), founded by the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo.
Rautenbach has entered into a partnership with the DTZ, in the formation of the Zimbabwe bio-energy ethanol project.
Rautenbach’s Zimbabwe Bio-Energy (ZBE) company proposed long back to build an ethanol plant in Mwenezi — way before the Chisumbanje one — but was allegedly being blocked by the ousted Joice Mujuru Zanu PF faction, which was in the provincial structures of government and Zanu PF then.
Rautenbach is believed to have strong links to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa. Bhasikiti says Mahofa has dirty hands.
Efforts to get a comment from Rautenbach were futile as an aide, who answered his mobile phone, said he was in Chisumbanje and will return the call which he had not done by the time we went on air.
Mahofa told Studio 7 she was in a meeting. But Charles Madonko , resident director of the Development Trust of Zimbabwe, says they are the ones who invited Rautenbach as they are the legitimate owners of the land and Bhasikiti is misleading himself.