In Zimbabwe, villagers sue corporation for violating their constitutional rights

Villagers in Chipinge, Manicaland province have dragged ethanol producer, Green Fuel to court to stop it from occupying their communal land and interfering with their farming activities. [ . . . ] Their concern came after Green Fuel started barring them from either tilling their fields, tendering their germinated crops and from total access at all. The villagers argued that Green Fuel had done so without securing a court order barring them access to their fields and neither has the use of land been changed from communal land to commercial land by the responsible authority to the knowledge of the villagers. In addition, Green Fuel has set armed security guards and dogs to ward off the villagers from accessing their fields in Magokova communal lands, of which farming is the only economic activity sustaining their livelihoods. Green Fuel’s conduct, the villagers argued violates several of their fundamental rights, specifically the right to agricultural land as guaranteed under section 72 of the Constitution, the right to food as guaranteed under section 77 of the Constitution, the right to property as provided for under section 71 of the Constitution, the right to equal protection of the law as guaranteed under section 56 of the Constitution and above all it is a violation of the founding principles and the national objectives of the people of Zimbabwe entrenched in the Constitution.
Read the full article here: ZimEye