By James Muonwa, Mashonaland West Correspondent

SIX former Grain Marketing Board (GMB) employees and their families were Friday ejected from the company’s houses in Chinhoyi following a protracted legal battle dating back to 2015.

Some of the families were on Sunday still sleeping in the open after the company got a court order for their immediate eviction.

The Messenger of Court executed the court decree to kick out the six families from houses they were occupying in Gadzema High Density Suburb, amid attempts by Zanu PF elements to stall the move.

The affected former GMB workers are Maths Masango, Geraldine Mavhunga, Innocent Durani, Tongesai Muringani, Aleck Mupande and Patricia Mapfumo.

A NewZimbabwe.com crew witnessed the unfolding drama as Zanu PF Ward 2 shadow councillor, Stuart Yasini, tried in vain to persuade the court officials to allow them time to look for alternative accommodation for the evictees.

The saga has been playing out in the courts since 2015, when the affected workers were put on forced retrenchment.

They were challenging their eviction without compensation after working for the quasi-governmental organisation for several years.

One of the evictees, Mapfumo (38) said she had nowhere to go as she could not afford accommodation.

A widow and mother of three school-going children, Mapfumo lamented alleged unfair labour practices by GMB management, which reneged on paying them severance packages.

“We were subjected to forced retrenchment in 2015 and GMB started paying trinkets into our bank accounts without informing us how much in packages we were owed,” an emotional Mapfumo told NewZimbabwe.com.

She added: “GMB has embarked on a sustained legal battle to have us evicted without paying us monies we worked for all these years. This is an inhumane and very callous attitude by GMB management.”

Efforts to get a comment from GMB officials were fruitless by the time of publishing.