By a Correspondent
Two former Members of Parliament are appearing at Murehwa Magistrates’ Court being charged with trespassing in a fresh escalation of a bitter dispute over residential stands at Stuhm Farm in Mashonaland East.
Former Mutasa Central MP Trevor Saruwaka (MDC/CCC) and former Zanu PF legislator Tongesai Mudambo, who are members of the Stuhm Residents Association (STuRA), are facing charges brought by businessman Billy Rautenbach’s interests in the ongoing battle over the land.
Saruwaka is STuRA’s secretary-general, while Mudambo is a director of Dial Resources, a company engaged by the former legislators to open access roads to their stands.
The case is the latest development in a dispute that has pitted former and serving legislators against the government and Rautenbach over land they legally acquired through the Ministry of Local Government.
The affected legislators bought the Stuhm stands and signed lease agreements with the ministry between 2018 and 2019, only for the same land to subsequently be allocated to Rautenbach in 2025.
Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe offered Rautenbach Stuhm farm in March 2025 ostensibly as compensation for land in Harare’s Aspindale Park and Lochinvar.
Stuhm Farm, measuring about 412 hectares, had been allocated to nearly 100 former MPs and senior officials under a government housing scheme, with beneficiaries paying for their stands and receiving lease agreements.
The reallocation triggered a legal challenge by the beneficiaries, who argued that their interests in the property could not simply be displaced without due process.
Saruwaka accused authorities of corruption over the allocation, saying more than 80 current and former MPs from across the political divide had benefited from the scheme. The beneficiaries reported the matter to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
The former MPs approached the High Court seeking to assert their rights over the land.
The latest criminal proceedings arise from efforts to develop the stands, with Rautenbach’s company alleging that Saruwaka and Mudambo trespassed on the property.
Prominent lawyer, Professor Lovemore Madhuku is representing the two former MPs.
The dispute attracted wider scrutiny over the government’s decision to allocate more than 400 hectares at Stuhm farm to Rautenbach as compensation for the Aspindale Park land which the High Court had ruled was not his in the first place.
The government faced questions over the reallocation because the Stuhm land had already been allocated under the legislators’ housing scheme.
The controversy deepened after title deeds were issued to Rautenbach’s company in June 2025, while legal challenges by existing beneficiaries were still pending.
