MAZOWE, Zimbabwe (AP) — In 2000, Timon Shava was a hero of Zimbabwe's land reform program when he joined hundreds of other landless peasants in a wave of land seizures and evictions of white farmers.
Today, he is homeless after police, acting on behalf of President Robert Mugabe's wife Grace, destroyed dozens of thatch dwellings on a farm that she wants to control. The First Lady, who has another farm in the area, said last year that she wanted to turn this farm into a wildlife conservancy that could raise money for an orphanage.
A new twist on the long struggle over land in Zimbabwe is now pitting powerful figures in Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party, which formerly was a liberation movement against oppressive white rule, against poor tenants in the southern African nation.
The powerful figures include Grace Mugabe, who has stepped up her entry into politics with the backing of her 90-year-old husband, leader of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. She became head of the ZANU-PF women's wing in a December party congress and became, along with her husband, a sharp critic of Vice President Joice Mujuru, who was ousted from her position.
Shava told Associated Press journalists that police officers destroyed the thatch huts on Manzou farm, a grassy piece of land with scattered acacia trees and overlooked by wooded hills in Mazowe, a prime farming district 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of the capital Harare. He said the police told him and other protesting tenants that the land was earmarked for Grace Mugabe.
"They applauded us when we chased away ... the white owner, in 2000. Yet now we are being treated like villains. It's as if we were keeping this place for the big people. We were used," Shava said.
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In this photo taken Thursday, Jan. 15, 2015, Florence Gurure sits next to her destroyed grass-hut dw …
The sometimes violent takeovers from whites 15 years ago were described by Mugabe as a campaign to correct colonial-era imbalances in land ownership. Critic said many of the invaded farms were mismanaged, hurting Zimbabwe's agricultural production and the economy.
Florence Gurure, who also participated in the 2000 invasion of the farm, pointed at the scattered poles and collapsed thatch roof of a traditional hut that was recently torn down by police.
