CHIADZWA - Over 1 700 families have been forced to immediately vacate their villages here to pave the way for controversial diamond mining in the area.

The affected families have been ordered to relocate to an Arda farm in Odzi to create room for the Zanu (PF) elite and senior officers in the security forces who are feeding off the diamond reserves while civil servants struggle to get decent salaries.
The villagers in the Chiadzwa precincts who are being evicted from their original homes have not benefited from the proceeds while Zanu (PF) chefs continue to loot national resources. 

Meanwhile, the farm to which the families are supposed to relocate has been occupied by other 92 families, making it impossible to cater for the evicted Chiadzwa families.

The families were last week given verbal eviction orders by heavily armed police and soldiers.
They are now fears of a serious outbreak of diseases at the Odzi farm as they are no mechanisms that have been put in place for the expected influx of people.

By Special correspondent