By Staff Reporter
THE eviction of thousands of people who illegally occupied land belonging to property firm, Eddies Pfugari, will now proceed after police agreed to escort the deputy sheriff to execute the eviction writ.
Pfugari, through its lawyers, has since written to the High Court withdrawing an earlier application in which it sought an order declaring police commissioner general Godwin Matanga to be in contempt of court after he failed to provide necessary police escort for the eviction.
At law, the deputy sheriff can only evict people in the presence of police officers.
In a letter to the deputy sheriff, Pfugari’s lawyers, Scanlen & Holderness, they are no longer pursuing the contempt application after the police undertook to assist in evicting the Whitecliff residents.
“We refer to our letter to you dated 14 March 2022 and the writer’s tele conversation with Mrs Siwadi earlier today. We can confirm that in view of the undertaking by the Zimbabwe Republic Police to provide the sheriff with the required assistance in enforcing the writ of ejectment, our client will not be pursuing the contempt application,” the letter, seen by NewZimbabwe.com Tuesday, reads.
“Accordingly, we instruct you to proceed with service of the writ of ejectment as per our letter dated 14 March 2022,” reads part of the letter to sheriff.
This comes after government reneged on its earlier commitment to pay Eddies Pfugari to stop the eviction of residents.
Matanga and Dzivarasekwa officer in charge Judith Tinarwo were being sued for failing to provide police details to escort sheriff to evict the illegally settled Whitecliff residents.
The settlers grabbed the land from Eddies Pfugari and should have been evicted long back after government failed to compensate the company as per agreement.
Pfugari obtained an eviction order at the High Court a few years ago, but the government, through the local government ministry, prevented its implementation after committing to paying for the land.
After government reneged on the payment, the company was left with no option but seek the services of the sheriff of the High Court to implement the eviction.
