Police in Masvingo detained a woman and her two-year-old child overnight after she resisted workers fencing off land her family says it has occupied for more than two decades — a confrontation that has thrown a bitter dispute over prime peri-urban plots in Clipsham back into the spotlight.

A night behind bars

Nancy Rikitai Gwaindepi, 42, was taken into custody on Monday together with a neighbour after a team arrived at her plot to erect a fence. Her toddler was with her at the time and was locked up as well, according to her family. The group was released the following afternoon.

The arrest came after Gwaindepi pleaded with the men to consider her position, saying she was about to lose the only home she has. Within minutes, a police vehicle carrying two female officers and a driver arrived at the plot, her husband said.

Competing claims over prime land

Chivi North legislator Godfrey Mukungunugwa confirmed that an arrest took place, but said the plot belongs to his brother, Day Mukungunugwa, who was allocated the land by the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works in September 2025. He described Gwaindepi as an illegal occupant who had already been given notice to move, and said the area has been redesignated for agro-business purposes. He insisted he had never visited the plot and asked that the matter not be reported.

Gwaindepi disputes that account. She alleges the legislator is absorbing more than four adjacent plots of 1,5 hectares each, which would leave him with at least six hectares in one of Masvingo’s most sought-after agricultural belts.

Hundreds of households under pressure

She is not the only one affected. Residents of the area say more than 700 people — among them war veterans, former police officers and civil servants who have lived there for over 20 years — are facing removal. They say they hold offer letters issued by the then Minister of Lands, while the incoming occupiers, said to include permanent secretaries, ministry directors and staff from the office of Masvingo Minister of State Ezra Chadzamira, arrived with fresh letters from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.

Most of those being pushed out say they were given only verbal notices to vacate. The new allocation scheme has been shrouded in secrecy, and attempts to obtain details from the relevant government departments over the past two years have yielded nothing, residents said.

Moffat Chikozho, 72, who has stayed on his plot since 2002, said the latest developments had left him unsettled and uncertain about the future of his home.

Children missing as pressure mounts

Prichard Tafirenyika Masocks, Gwaindepi’s husband, said the harassment has torn the family apart. He left his job as a driver in Shurugwi to be with his wife and children, and two of the couple’s children — aged 16 and 19 — have since left home. The family does not know where they are, even though both should be in school.

Masocks said police had visited the area twice and told plot holders that someone with considerable influence was coming to take over their land. Workers putting up the fence told him they had been sent by the legislator, he added.

Police dispute over the record

Provincial police spokesperson Inspector Kudakwashe Dhewa said Gwaindepi’s name did not appear in police records. Mukungunugwa, however, confirmed that she had been arrested — a contradiction that has left the family questioning how the case was handled.

Gwaindepi said the trauma of the past months has left her depressed, to the point where she has sometimes contemplated taking her own life.

Why it matters

Clipsham sits on some of the most fertile peri-urban land around Masvingo, which has made it a target for competing claims between long-standing holders of older offer letters and newer allocations backed by fresh paperwork. The case raises hard questions about due process, the use of police in what is essentially a civil property dispute, and the precarious position of families whose tenure rests on documents issued decades ago.

For now, Gwaindepi and her neighbours remain on the land — waiting to see whether the fence lines drawn this week will be followed by bulldozers.