THE High Court will on Monday hear an urgent application by 14 members of the Johanne Masowe Apostolic sect who were allegedly evicted from a house in Chitungwiza by the sons of their jailed leader, Godfrey Nzira.
Tendai Chibvongodze, Washington Kachulu and Aaron Aron said in an application filed on Tuesday this week, that they were appointed by Nzira in 1992 to look after property in the house in Unit "O",which belonged to the sect leader.
Nzira is serving a 32-year jail term at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison for rape and indecent assault.
Chibvongodze said he and 13 other sect members had been living at the house since 1992 and had come to regard it as their permanent residence. They also ran a tuckshop at the house which they claim was their source of livelihood.
The sect members allege in papers submitted before the court that trouble started on Saturday last week when Nzira's sons, Osmeg and Takemore, allegedly stormed the house and forcibly evicted them.
Osmeg and Takemore allegedly seized keys for the house and threatened the occupants with unspecified harm if they refused to move out.
"We were in undisturbed and peaceful occupation of the house since 1992 up to 19 July when the respondents came to evict us unlawfully from the house," Chibvongodze said in an affidavit attached to the court application.
Chibvongodze said that since their eviction from the house he and his colleagues have been living at the sect's shrine near Makoni Shopping Centre in Chitungwiza.
The group wants the High Court to grant them the right to return to the house and also that the court bars Nzira's sons from damaging or removing their property from the house.