Chichele residents in Ndola losses land to foreigners
By Staff Reporter
PF Bwana Mkubwa Member of Parliament, Dr. Jonas Chanda has called for expeditious implementation of the land policy to protect citizens against displacements influenced by business interests.
Speaking when he addressed over 800 aggrieved families who were dispossessed and displaced from land they have lived and farmed on for over 26 years in Ndola’s Chichele area, Dr Chanda said the decision to accommodate foreigners was indiscriminate.
He said land ownership should remain a sovereign right of Zambians, as opposed to the prevailing stitutation.
And Chairperson for the displaced families Abraham Manda explained that the contested land in Chichele was a State Farm under the Dairy Produce Board in the UNIP government in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The displaced people are former casual workers and their families at the State Farm. When the MMD government came to power in the 1990s the Dairy Produce Board collapsed under the Privatization program, and a former DPB Farm Manager a Mr Mutambo was given 300 of the 3,000 hectares of land as his retrenchment package since the company had no money. The farm casual workers continued living on the rest of the farm cultivating with their families,” said Manda.
Manda further said that when Mutambo sold the land to a South African company Golden Lay who deal in chicken eggs some years back, the original land title he had was only for 300 hectares. Under unclear circumstances, the 300 hectares land title was later changed to 3,000 hectares at Ministry of Lands offices in Ndola and then Mr Mutambo sold the entire 3,000 hectares to Golden Lay and relocated to live in the UK.
“The farm casual workers and their families were forcefully chased from their small farms by individuals hired by Golden Lay with support of some Police officers. Only 47 former farm workers were compensated with 200 hectares of land while the rest are still stranded. The matter has been in court several times, with the last ruling being in favour of Golden Lay Company,” he said
Dr Chanda said displacement of Zambians without compensation or alternative land was a moral issue, not a legal issue.
“It is totally unacceptable that 800 plus Zambians are now landless in their own country when Zambia has plenty of land of 752,618 square kilometres, the 39th largest country in the world in terms of land mass with a relatively small population of about 15 million people,” said Dr Chanda.
He has since promised the affected families that he is taking up the matter urgently with Minister of Lands Jean Kapata and other land management bodies in Lusaka as well as tabling it in Parliament until justice was done.
