(IDEX Online) - VILLAGERS in south-eastern Zimbabwe claim they're being evicted from their homes to make way for gold and diamond mining - rather than dairy farming.
Over 12,000 residents of Chilonga Village, in Chiredzi, say the project proposed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a "cover story".
They say the real reason they're being removed is to allow large-scale mineral extraction in an area where recent surveys have identified "vast deposits of kimberlite diamonds and gold" as well as coal, scheelite and quartz.
They also say the mining project was rejected by President Mugabe in 2016, but he was reportedly against removing the Tshangani people from their ancestral land.
The government of Zimbabwe has published details of plans to evict 12,000 people to make way for a Lucerne grass production project by Dendairy, the privately-held producer of dairy products and fruit juices.
Pic shows villagers in Chiredzi...