{"id":115265,"date":"2026-02-15T10:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T08:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates"},"modified":"2026-02-15T13:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T11:00:03","slug":"marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates","title":{"rendered":"Marondera Elmswood Farm Saga Developer Updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>A PROPERTY developer, Rant du Toit, says it is ready to engage the Municipality of Marondera to map the way forward after the court ruled that the local authority had illegally occupied Elmswood Farm.<\/p>\n<p>The municipality moved onto the farm, pegged residential stands, and sold them to desperate home-seekers, prompting Swandev (Pvt) Ltd \u2014 the farm\u2019s owner \u2014 to approach the courts seeking an interdict to stop the council from selling its property.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, Joel Mambara ruled that Swandev Pvt Ltd is the legitimate owner of the 886-hectare property, bringing to an end a protracted dispute that had left many home-seekers confused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe applicant (Swandev) has demonstrated a clear right of ownership in the property. Ownership of land is a most fundamental right, protected both at common law and by Section 71 of the Constitution of Zimbabwe (which safeguards property rights),\u201d part of the judgment read.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy virtue of its registered title, the applicant enjoys dominium over the farm, which includes the right to exclude others from the property and to refuse any unconsented sale or allocation of portions thereof. The respondent\u2019s actions \u2014 advertising and selling plots on the applicant\u2019s land \u2014 plainly interfere with the applicant\u2019s rights as owner.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe respondent has no lawful authority to carve up and dispose of land it does not own. Therefore, the applicant\u2019s right is not only clear; it is being actively infringed by the respondent. The first requirement for an interdict is thus satisfied.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview yesterday, Rant du Toit operations manager James Kawawa said the company is \u201cpeacefully\u201d preparing to move onto Elmswood Farm to begin operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will soon move into Elmswood to begin operations that is, to develop the area and allocate stands to about 500 people who had acquired them before council moved onto the land,\u201d Kawawa said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are also going to engage the council so that we can resolve this amicably. Ideally, council should compensate us for the land it had taken \u2014 for example, by offering us alternative land or paying compensation \u2014 so that we can avoid evictions and demolitions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the council decides otherwise, we will have no choice but to follow the legal route as we move to occupy our land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before the municipality moved onto the farm and began allocating stands, Rant du Toit had already serviced part of the land and allocated some residential stands to its clients, many of whom were members of the Zanu PF affiliate, Homeseekers 4ED.<\/p>\n<p>Rant du Toit was contracted by Swandev Pvt Ltd to develop the property.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Zimbabwe<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Zimbabwe. A PROPERTY developer, Rant du Toit, says it is ready to engage the Municipality of Marondera to map the way forward after the court ruled that the local authority had illegally occupied Elmswood Farm. The municipality moved onto the farm, pegged residential stands, and sold them to desperate home-seekers, prompting Swandev (Pvt) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":115263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-115265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-zimbabwe"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marondera Elmswood Farm Saga Developer Updates - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A PROPERTY developer, Rant du Toit, says it is ready to engage the Municipality of Marondera to map the way forward afte ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marondera Elmswood Farm Saga Developer Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A PROPERTY developer, Rant du Toit, says it is ready to engage the Municipality of Marondera to map the way forward afte ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-15T08:56:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-15T11:00:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/02\/sm_1771153167.8456.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"899\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Marondera Elmswood Farm Saga Developer Updates\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-15T08:56:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-15T11:00:03+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates\"},\"wordCount\":441,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2026\/02\/sm_1771153167.8456.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Zimbabwe\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/marondera-elmswood-farm-saga-developer-updates\",\"name\":\"Marondera Elmswood Farm Saga Developer Updates - 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