HARARE – Zimbabwe government spokesman Nick Ndavaningi Mangwana brandished a gun and told a defiant farmer to “leave peacefully” as he intensified his desperate push to evict some 70 families from a farm he recently grabbed, it was claimed.

The families, who have lived on Thorndike Farm near Chegutu for the past six years, say despite applying for formalised settlement on parts of the 2,000-hectare property between 2014 and 2016, they were surprised to see Mangwana show up with an offer letter stacking out 102 hectares in January.

He has ordered the families to harvest their crops and leave.

Ebenia Shava, one of the community members leading the charge against Mangwana, said the civil servant confronted him Sunday in the company of an aide, telling him he was being “arrogant” for refusing to be “evicted in a humane manner.”

A revolver was visibly tucked into his shorts to frighten him, Shava claimed.

“Mangwana declared that I should leave the farm now because he wants to pursue his farming projects, I refused and told him I also have a claim on the land,” the vocal farmer told ZimLive.

“He then told me he applied for the land in 2013 and said if I do not leave, he would resort to state machinery to evict me. He said the law and the system are on his side.”

Shava added: “I asked Mangwana if we were at war for him to bring a gun to discuss the farm wrangle. He did not respond, but went on and put the gun in his silver [Toyota] Land Cruiser [vehicle].”

“I think Mangwana deliberately exposed the gun for me to see as a show of power, which I cannot match.”

His parting words, Shava said, “were that he will send bulldozers to raze down everything to the ground if I continue to resist his eviction threats. I told him to go ahead as I have nothing to lose because I have already lost my livelihood.”

The affected families settled on the disputed land after its late owner Gilford Rukawo signed up for a voluntary farm downsizing scheme which saw him retain about 800 hectares.

Mangwana did not respond to requests for an interview over the gun-flaunting allegations.

But he recently told ZimLive: “I made my application for a farm in 2013 when I was still in the United Kingdom, but allocation was only done after the land audit.”

“The allegations that I invaded a farm are false. I was allocated the farm and have the proper documentation to prove that. I’m actually taking a humane approach to evict these illegal occupants on my farm.

“As a matter of fact, they actually grew maize crop on my land and I’m waiting for them to harvest their crops then I evict them,” Mangwana said.