The battle for control of the Farfell coffee estate in Chipinge, which exports coffee to several European countries, spilt into the courts this week.
A video went viral last month on social media of coffee farmer Richard le Vieux being told by Remembrance Mbudzana to cede part of the land he had farmed for decades. Mbudzana claimed he had been offered 229ha of the 520ha farm by the government.
An offer letter from the ministry of lands, agriculture, water, climate & rural settlements, dated January 10, appeared to confirm this.
The 229ha of the thriving coffee farm that Mbudzana wants has an almost ripe crop on it. Farfell coffee estate is contesting the matter in court.
The looming takeover of the farm poses a litmus test for President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has said there will be no fresh farm seizures on his watch.
Mnangagwa also committed to paying compensation to white farmers forcibly removed from their farms during land invasions in 2000.
Independent estimates place the cost of compensation to the white farmers for their losses at nearly $10bn.
It is believed agriculture minister Perrance Shiri's help has been sought to help resolve the issue.
Shiri did not respond to calls for comment. Le Vieux said he would not comment while the case was sub judice.
"We have to wait for the court process [at Chipinge magistrate's court] to be complete," he said.
Farfell is located along the Mount Selinda border with Mozambique. A visit to the farm showed that security had been beefed up at the property, which produces coffee, avocado pears and 250t of macadamias worth $1m a year.
There are five processing plants on the farm, which supports 300 families.
Armed security guards from Mjayeli Security Services are guarding the property, and visitors who have no appointment are turned away.
The coffee estate has been a source of contestation in the Chipinge area, with farmworkers say there were several cases of sabotage of its activities in the past year.
"Last year, a group of youths came during the night and harvested a third of the produce while Le Vieux was out of the country. A nearby farm also experienced the same issue; they lost 20% of their yield to theft," said a farmworker, who asked not to be named.
Commercial Farmers Union director Ben Gilpin said: "We do have a few more incidents occurring on other farms scattered around the country, but they are not nearly as bad as they were before the new administration."
Paul Zakaria, executive director at the Zimbabwe Farmers Union, ruled out any farm seizures.
"I can categorically say there are no farm invasions under the new dispensation. The disputes involve people who settled themselves during the land reform and those that were formally allocated land by government. The cases are still before the courts."
A spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Macadamia Association, James Maisiri, said the disputes on the farms were related to farm boundaries.
"We have 182 new macadamia farmers that were allocated pieces of farms under land reform and... there are ownership wrangles among ourselves, but mainly to do with boundaries."
He said the land under tillage for macadamia in Zimbabwe had fallen to 3,000ha this year from 5,000ha a decade ago, and ascribed the decline mostly to new farmers finding it difficult to get access to foreign export markets...