Arda Transau residents still high and dry

Marshall Bwanya

Harare—Relocated residents of Arda Transau in Manicaland have complained bitterly over the government’s failure to meet their social and economic needs, amid a litany of broken promises.

Arda Transau is a 12000 hectare farm to which an estimated 1.300 families was moved from the vast diamond fields of Chiadzwa in the same province between 2010 and 2011 to make way for several local and foreign mining companies.

Five companies were involved in the relocations, with Anjin, the only one remaining in the diamond fields, leading at around 1000 households.

Each family was allocated a four-roomed match-box house, with a few exceptions where the houses were bigger, while promises were made by both the companies and government officials to set up major health and learning centres.

The relocated families received a flat US$ 1000 compensation each while more unspecified disbursements were promised too, but there were no valuations of the properties the relocatees owned.

Recently, the Zimbabwe Diamond and Allied Workers Union (ZIDAWU), a local civic society organisation, hosted a community discussion aimed at countering the rampant spread of misinformation and disinformation in the Arda Transau settlement in Manicaland.

The ZIDAWU was among six community-based organisations that were this year trained to lead their constituencies in identifying and combating disinformation and misinformation.

The training took place under an International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) funded by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs coordinated by the Meridian International Centre

Conducting in-community meetings is one of the strategies that ZIDAWU and other CBOs are using—in addition to social media—to expose disinformation and misinformation.

The ZIDAWU meeting sought to address long-standing grievances in the face of unresolved issues relating to the relocations.

According to meeting participants, outstanding compensation and land tenure featured prominently at the community dialogue.

While families were promised ownership of their new homes, the Mutare District Development Coordinator, Tendai Kapenzi, recently claimed publicly that the houses were government property, sparking confusion and frustration.

“This situation has left many of us feeling duped and dispossessed of our ancestral lands,” said one resident, who refused to be named.

The one-hectare plots allocated to each family are inadequate for the ever-growing families, and promised irrigation schemes and additional land have only benefited an estimated 30 community members only.

The residents have also complained that, instead of guaranteeing them security of tenure over the space they were allocated more than a decade ago, their plots will be drastically reduced.

Government approved the Mutare City Council master plan that includes the eastern capital expanding into Arda to build houses.

This entails cutting the size of or taking over the one-hectare plots that the residents were allocated when they moved to Arda.

Married offspring who owned homes in Chiadzwa were not allocated new homes, forcing them to move in with their parents.

“Some married offspring who owned homes in Chiadzwa were not provided with new houses after relocation.

“As a result, they were forced to move back in with their parents, disrupting their independence and family lives,” said Sandra Gamunorwa, a community monitor and ZIDAWU volunteer.

To address the socio-economic vulnerabilities and rampant disinformation the local communities are facing, ZIDAWU has launched initiatives to train community leaders in critical thinking and media literacy.

Charles Mauchaza, a community leader, told the ZIDAWU meeting that the training they had received from the union had empowered them to filter information and counter disinformation.

“We must always rely on first hand and comprehensive information to avoid disinformation to our communities.

”We must first have a direct conversation with the source of information that we want rather than relying on hearsay,” Mauchaza emphasized.

The ZIDAWU head, Cosmas Sunguro, outlined plans to establish an information centre in Arda Transau and launch a community magazine to provide regular updates on compensation and land ownership issues.

The discussion highlighted the need for accurate and transparent communication from authorities.

During the meeting, community members reiterated their demands for title deeds and compensation.

Initiatives such as community radio stations were proposed as tools to rebuild trust and counter misinformation.

“The proposed community radio station or training on countering disinformation could help the community to resolve its challenges and rebuild trust very much, because it open up our mind and can give us the way to follow up the promised things that are unfulfilled,” said Precious Gamunorwa, another community leader.